astronautics and aeronautics: a chronology, 1996-2000

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS A CHRONOLOGY 1996ndash2000

NASA SP-2009-4030

February 2009

Authors Marieke Lewis and Ryan Swanson Project Manager Alice R Buchalter

Federal Research Division Library of Congress

NASA History Division Office of External Relations NASA Headquarters Washington DC 20546

Astronautics and Aeronautics A Chronology 1996-2000

PREFACE

This report is a chronological compilation of narrative summaries of news reports and

government documents highlighting significant events and developments in United States and

foreign aeronautics and astronautics It covers the years 1996 through 2000 These summaries

provide a day-by-day recounting of major activities such as administrative developments

awards launches scientific discoveries corporate and government research results and other

events in countries with aeronautics and astronautics programs Researchers used the archives

and files housed in the NASA History Division as well as reports and databases on the NASA

Web site

i


TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE i

JANUARY 1996 1 FEBRUARY 1996 5 MARCH 1996 9 APRIL 1996 13 MAY 1996 17 JUNE 1996 22 JULY 1996 25 AUGUST 1996 29 SEPTEMBER 1996 33 OCTOBER 1996 37 NOVEMBER 1996 41 DECEMBER 1996 45



JANUARY 1999 179 FEBRUARY 1999 183

iii


MARCH 1999 187 APRIL 1999 191 MAY 1999 196 JUNE 1999 201 JULY 1999 207 AUGUST 1999 213 SEPTEMBER 1999 219 OCTOBER 1999 224 NOVEMBER 1999 232 DECEMBER 1999 239


APPENDIX A TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS 311

APPENDIX B BIBLIOGRAPHY 317

iv


JANUARY 1996

8 January Furloughed NASA employees returned to work at the end of a federal government shutdown of 14 to 21 days NASA had allowed some critical employees to return before others The government shutdown resulting from a budget stalemate between the Republican Congress and the Democratic White House forced NASA to cease operations and to clear thousands of its employees from field centers across the country Upon resuming its normal proceedings NASA faced a backlog of work because of the disruption Workers returning to Houstonrsquos Johnson Space Center (JSC) were especially anxious to catch up because the Center had only three days to prepare for a scheduled Shuttle launch A snowstorm delayed for a few more hours the return of workers to Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville Alabama1

9 January A delegation from the U S Congress traveled to Russia to meet with Russian Space Agency officials Representatives Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) members of the subcommittee in charge of NASArsquos funding⎯the Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies⎯led the contingent Their goal was to keep intact the coalition of countries dedicated to making the International Space Station (ISS) a reality Faced with Russian insistence that the planned space station connect with the Russian space station Mir the US lawmakers warned Russian officials not to pursue radical changes in the plans for the space station Sensenbrenner noted that obstinacy on the part of the Russians might result in the coalitionrsquos building the ISS without Russian involvement2

12 January G Porter Bridwell retired after nearly 40 years of service at MSFC in Huntsville Alabama Bridwell had served as Director of MSFC from 1994 until his retirement He left the Center with an annual operating budget of US$25 billion and more than 3000 employees Bridwell had spent most of his career at MSFC serving briefly as Acting Director of Stennis Space Center in 1987 and at NASA Headquarters from 1993 to 1994 Bridwell had also been a member of the space station redesign team During his tenure Bridwell had received NASArsquos Exceptional Service Medal the Outstanding Leadership Medal and the Exceptional Achievement Medal attaining the rank of Meritorious Executive3 NASA announced that J Wayne Littles would take over as the new Director of MSFC4

Republican presidential candidate Patrick J Buchanan announced that he would cancel a controversial political advertisement using images of the Space Shuttle Challenger accident Responding to harsh criticism from New Hampshire residents Buchanan removed the footage of Challenger from the television spot Buchanan stated that the purpose of the advertisement his first in the crucial primary state of New Hampshire was to demonstrate his service to President Ronald Reagan during difficult times However in the home state of teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe who had died in the accident many residents felt that the campaignrsquos use of the

1 NASA ldquoNASA Headquarters Regroups After Longest Federal Shutdownrdquo HQ Bulletin 5 February 1996 John Makeio ldquoFederal Employees Face Backlog Hererdquo Houston Chronicle 9 January 1996 2 Ben Lannotta ldquoCongress to Russia Drop MirndashStation Link Ideardquo Space News 15ndash21 January 1996 3 20 3 Martin Burkey ldquoBridwell Bids MSFC Farewell with Optimismrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 12 January 1996 4 NASA ldquoLittles Named Director of Marshall Space Flight Centerrdquo news release 96-3 16 January 1996

1


images exploited the event for political gain The political controversy brought to the foreground the lingering public dismay over the lost Challenger even as the 10-year anniversary of the tragedy neared5

Shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida beginning a mission focused primarily on plucking the Japanese Space Flying Unit from orbit for analysis Commander Brian Duffy led a six-person crew which included Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata Endeavour also carried a small satellite to deploy KSC officials delayed Endeavourrsquos launch for 23 minutes because of a series of communications problems between the Shuttle crew and the flight-control team Endeavourrsquos flight was the first of eight Shuttle missions planned by NASA for 19966

16 January Lockheed Martin announced its intention to cut 200 jobs at its facility for the production of external fuel tanks for NASArsquos Space Shuttle NASArsquos budget reductions had caused the layoffs according to Lockheed Lockheed Martinrsquos facility in New Orleans employed more than 2500 workers in 19967

NASA released time-lapse photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) making the images immediately available on the Internet Based on these images lauded as the deepest images of the universe ever taken scientists raised their estimate of the number of galaxies in the universe from 10 to 50 billion ldquoSuddenly Universe Gains 40 Billion More Galaxiesrdquo the New York Times reported Using a narrow ldquokeyholerdquo view and focusing the HST on a portion of the sky only the width of a dime telescope operators probed deep into the universe The images revealed the process of a starrsquos death as well as new information about how galaxies evolve HST astronomer Howard E Bond estimated that the Sun would die out in about 5 billion years8

Space Shuttle Endeavourrsquos crew used the spacecraftrsquos 50-foot (15-meter) robotic arm to snare NASArsquos Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology Flyer (OAST-Flyer) satellite The OAST-Flyer valued at US$10 million weighed 2600 pounds (1200 kilograms)9

18 January Astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour tested new NASA spacesuits in extreme cold In preparation for work on the ISS US astronaut Winston E Scott stood nearly motionless in space for 35 minutes in temperatures nearing 100deg below 0degF (-7333degC) to test the suitrsquos insulating capacity In completing the exercise Scott became the second African American man to walk in space The newly improved suits produced at a cost of US$10 million each proved an

5 Howard Kurtz ldquoTelevision Ad Backfires on Buchananrdquo Washington Post 12 January 1996 Associated Press ldquoBuchanan Chastised for Using Challenger Image in TV Adrdquo 12 January 1996 6 Mark Carreau ldquoShuttle Blasts Off in Pursuit of Satellite After Slight Delayrdquo Houston Chronicle 12 January 1996 7 Associated Press ldquoLockheed Martin Cuts Shuttle Program Jobsrdquo 16 January 1996 8 John Noble Wilford ldquoSuddenly Universe Gains 40 Billion More Galaxiesrdquo New York Times 16 January 1996 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNASA Takes Portrait of Universerdquo Washington Post 16 January 1996 NASA ldquoNew Hubble Images Availablerdquo news release N96-2 17 January 1996 9 Associated Press ldquoShuttlersquos Astronauts Grab a 4-Ton Japanese Science Satellite from Its Orbitrdquo 17 January 1996 Mark Carreau ldquoShuttle Dodges Military Satellite on Way To Retrieve Japanese Craftrdquo Houston Chronicle 13 January 1996 Michael Cabbage ldquoSatellite Stowedrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 14 January 1996

2


effective barrier against the cold The gloves and the boots of the suits contained heating elements NASA made the thermal improvements to the spacesuits after the astronauts became cold during the February 1995 spacewalk causing its early termination10

At a conference of the American Astronomical Society in San Antonio Texas a team of US astronomers announced the discovery of two new stars with the characteristics to sustain life within their solar systems The astronomers identified the bodies both visible to the naked eye as star 70 Virginis in the constellation Virgo and a star orbiting 47 Ursae Majoris in the Big Dipper Geoffrey Marcy and Paul Butler researchers affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco State University spent nine years monitoring 120 Sun-like stars in order to discover the two stars11

21 January Space Shuttle Endeavour landed safely after a successful nine-day mission The Shuttle crew accomplished its primary task of capturing a Japanese satellite The early-morning landing in which the Shuttle returned to Earth under a shroud of darkness was a rare occurrence12

22 January NASA released its analysis of the data from the Galileo probe mission to Jupiter information that had caused scientists to rethink their theories about Jupiterrsquos formation The data suggested that Jupiter does not have the three-tiered cloud structure scientists had anticipated and that the amount of helium present on Jupiter is half of scientistsrsquo projections NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science Wesley T Huntress Jr touted the data collected as beyond NASArsquos highest expectations The Galileo probe had been one of NASArsquos most challenging missions undertaken to obtain scientific data According to NASA the probe had made the most difficult planetary atmospheric entry ever attempted surviving entry speeds of more than 100000 miles (160000 kilometers) per hour and temperatures twice as hot as the surface of the Sun13

23 January George W S Abbey became the seventh Director of JSC in Houston Texas Abbey had been Acting Director since Carolyn Hunter had stepped down from the post on 4 August 1995 According to NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin Abbeyrsquos distinguished NASA career made him the right man for the job Administrator Goldin announced ldquoGeorge Abbey is uniquely qualified to lead the Johnson team into the future Over the course of his eminent career with NASA he has distinguished himself as an innovator and pioneer at all levels of Agency managementrdquo Abbey had begun working at NASA in 1967 after serving as a pilot in the US Air Force He had worked on the Apollo Spacecraft Program before becoming Director of Flight Operations NASA had recognized Abbeyrsquos superior service by awarding him its Exceptional Service Medal and two Distinguished Service Medals14

10 Michael Cabbage ldquoStaying Warm in Cosmic Coldrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 18 January 1996 Jet Magazine ldquoNavy Captain Winston Scott Becomes Second Black To Walk in Spacerdquo 5 February 1996 24 11 Kathy Sawyer ldquoTwo Planets Discovered that Might Sustain Liferdquo Washington Post 18 January 1996 12 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Crew Lands After Success with 2 Satellites 2 Space Walksrdquo 21 January 1996 13 NASA ldquoGalileo Probe Suggests Planetary Science Reappraisalrdquo news release 96-10 22 January 1996 14 NASA ldquoAbbey Named Director of Johnson Space Centerrdquo news release 96-11 23 January 1996

3


28 January NASA commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the Challenger tragedy In advance of the anniversary NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin reaffirmed NASArsquos dual commitments to exploring the frontiers of the universe and to maintaining the highest safety standard possible According to Goldin ldquothe best way to honor the memories of the crew of Challenger and of all the men and women who have given their lives to explore the frontiers of air and space is to continue their bold tradition of exploration and innovationrdquo In the decade following the accident NASA had instituted multiple safety changes in the Shuttle program including the nine changes in the programrsquos structure recommended by the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident (Rogers Commission) By the end of January 1996 NASA had launched 49 Shuttle missions since the Challenger accident and had successfully deployed the HST Memorial observances at KSC and JSC took place at 1139 am (EST) the exact time that Challenger exploded15

30 January NASA and the Russian Space Agency announced that the United States and Russia had reached an agreement to extend the ShuttlendashMir collaboration until 1998 with both countries reaffirming their commitments to building the ISS At the time of the agreement Russia was continuing to negotiate with the international space community to maintain the Russian station Mir as a long-term portal to the ISS Through additional Shuttle flights to the Mir outpost the United States planned to deliver thousands of pounds of materials to space which otherwise would have required Russian launches The United States offered Russia this significant assistance in the hope that the cash-strapped country would be able to keep its commitments to the ISS project Vice President Albert A Gore Jr and Russian Prime Minister Viktor S Chernomyrdin announced concurrently that US astronaut William M Shepherd and Russian cosmonaut Sergei K Krikalev would be the first crew members to live aboard the ISS16

NASA announced completion of the exterior of the US modules constructed to house the astronauts aboard the ISS as well as more than 80000 pounds (36000 kilograms) of flight hardware for the station With the completion of the modules the United States successfully attained the first benchmark in the long and expensive process to complete its part of the ISS Boeing workers had completed the project at MSFC NASA planned to launch the first node of the ISS in December 199717

31 January NASA announced that in collaboration with industry leaders and university scholars it had developed an instrument that generates the worldrsquos most intense source of commercial x-rays more than 100 times stronger than conventional x-rays ldquoThis new optical instrument provides

15 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Program Changes and Accomplishments Since 1986rdquo news release January 1996 NASA ldquoAdministrator Goldin Issues Statement on Challenger Observancerdquo news release 96-2 16 January 1996 16 NASA ldquoNASA and RSA Agree To Extend ShuttlendashMir Activitiesrdquo news release 96-18 30 January 1996 Warren E Leary ldquoUS To Help Defray Russiarsquos Expenses for the Space Stationrdquo New York Times 1 February 1996 17 NASA ldquoExterior of US Space Station Modules Completed Flight Hardware on Track for Launch in 1997rdquo news release 96-17 30 January 1996 NASA ldquoUnited Statesrsquo Space Station Modules Are Right on Trackrdquo HQ Bulletin 20 February 1996 3 The Boeing Company ldquoExterior of US Space Station Modules Completed Flight Hardware on Track First Launch in 1997rdquo news release 5 February 1996

4


something never before possible a capability to control the direction for x-ray beamsrdquo said Walter M Gibson professor at State University of New York at Albany Using capillary optics the instrument could focus more precisely on a target in a research or medical situation Daniel C Carter Director of MSFC postulated that the new instrument would have numerous medical and commercial applications including improvements in drug research medical imaging and forensic science18

FEBRUARY 1996

1 February Astronomers at California Institute of Technology announced the discovery of what they believed to be the most distant galaxy ever glimpsed from the Earth The team of scientists including Thomas A Barlow Limin Liu Wallace L W Sargent and Donna S Womble had stumbled across the unnamed galaxy while studying a quasar silhouetted by the galaxyrsquos light The team used the W M Keck Observatory atop the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii In comparison to other documented galaxies their find was a relatively young galaxy⎯probably formed less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang The galaxy resides near the constellation Virgo Ironically since the galaxy lies 14 billion light-years away from Earth the scientists had no way of knowing whether their discovery still actually existed The scientists hoped that their discovery would offer new understanding of the period when stars began to congregate into galaxies19

2 February Space Shuttle Program Director Bryan D OrsquoConnor announced his resignation from NASA effective at the end of February 1996 OrsquoConnor stated that the transition in Shuttle management had presented him with an opportunity to leave NASA without causing undue disruption In the months before his resignation OrsquoConnor had voiced some concerns about NASArsquos planned transfer of responsibility for Shuttle flight operations to United Space Alliance a private contractor formed by Lockheed Martin and Rockwell International In announcing his departure OrsquoConnor praised NASA workers and astronauts for their exemplary service After the 1986 Challenger accident OrsquoConnor had played an important role in restoring the Shuttle program and restructuring NASA OrsquoConnor a former US Marine Corps pilot and astronaut had directed a major overhaul of the space station program taking over as Director of the Space Shuttle Program in 199420

6 February NASA announced its plan to shift authority over the Shuttle program from NASA Headquarters in Washington DC to Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston Texas JSC also would take control over construction of the International Space Station The shift was one of NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldinrsquos efforts to restructure NASA and remove layers of bureaucracy

18 NASA ldquoNASA Helps Invent Revolutionary X-ray Instrumentrdquo news release 96-19 31 January 1996 NASA ldquoNASA Helps Invent Revolutionary X-ray Devicerdquo HQ Bulletin 4 March 1996 3 19California Institute of Technology ldquoAstronomers Discover the Most Distant Galaxyrdquo news release 31 January 1996 Reuters ldquoScientists Discover Farthest Galaxy Yetrdquo 1 February 1996 John Noble Wilford ldquoNew Galaxy May Shed Light on Universerdquo New York Times 1 February 1996 20NASA ldquoOrsquoConnor To Leave NASArdquo news release 96-23 2 February 1996 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNASA Space Shuttle Director Resignsrdquo Washington Post 3 February 1996

5


Goldinrsquos mission centered on controlling costs and improving efficiency With the change in organization key managers at JSC and other regional centers such as Kennedy Space Center (KSC) gained new authority to act without consulting Goldin or other officials at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC The change caused some observers to comment that NASA was shifting back to the less strictly hierarchical model of operation that had characterized it before the Challenger accident In response to the Challenger tragedy and the ensuing Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident (Rogers Commission Report) NASA had centralized some of its operations to avoid the poor communication between regional centers that had contributed to the tragedy21

12 February Japanrsquos National Space Development Agency (NASDA) experienced a setback when one of its prototypes for a small robotic spacecraft landed in the ocean and sank The Japanese officials had anticipated the ocean landing immediately after the launch of the Hyflex shuttle the Hope-X from an island in southern Japan In spite of the loss of its shuttle NASDA did not consider the exercise an entire failure The Hope-X had launched successfully separated from its rocket at a height of 70 miles (113 kilometers) and then returned to Earth 19 minutes later as planned The problem occurred when the craft splashed into the ocean and a rope connecting the 1-ton (900shykilogram or 09-tonne) shuttle to its flotation device broke causing it to sink NASDA reported that it had intended to collect data during the flight to test the shuttlersquos fitness for reentry but had been unable to procure much of the information needed Japan had manufactured the US$37 million shuttle domestically planning the exercise as a part of its effort to bolster its fledgling

22space program

NASA announced the selection of eight proposals for its newly inaugurated Advanced Concepts Research Projects (ACRP) program NASA had received more than 100 proposals for the program founded in September 1995 to identify and support new ideas and technologies that might eventually improve the US space program The ACRP program allowing up to US$250000 in support for each selected proposal included proposals covering a wide spectrum of technologies and fields such as ldquofusion-based space propulsion optical computing robotics interplanetary navigation materials and structure ultra-lightweight large aperture optics and innovative modular spacecraft architectural conceptsrdquo23

13 February The television series Home Improvement aired an episode showing members of Shuttle Columbiarsquos crew in scenes shot in space The Shuttlersquos crew had captured the film during Mission STS-73 in October 1995 The airing marked the first time that NASA had allowed the filming of operations in space specifically for a television series The NASA crew included Kenneth D Bowersox Catherine G Coleman Frederick W Leslie Kathryn C Thornton and

21 NASA ldquoNASA Headquarters Begins Migrating Functions to the Centersrdquo HQ Bulletin 20 February 1996 1 Associated Press ldquoNASA Shifts Shuttle Station Authority from Washington to Houstonrdquo 7 February 1996 Larry Wheeler ldquoGoldinrsquos Plan To Decentralize NASA Raises Challenger Concernsrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 7 February 1996 22 Associated Press ldquoJapanese Shuttle Sinksrdquo 12 February 1996 23 NASA ldquoInnovative Space Concepts Selected for Negotiationsrdquo news release 96-28 12 February 1996

6


Albert Sacco Jr Bowersox who had appeared previously on Home Improvement praised the event as a public relations achievement for NASA24

17 February NASA launched a space probe aimed at a faraway asteroid only about twice the size of Manhattan Island Scientists intended the probe called Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) to reach the asteroid in three years If the mission succeeded NASA planned for the probe to orbit the asteroid for nearly one year before eventually crashing into the rock Astronomers hoped that the data gathered during the exercise would provide new information about the formation of the universe With a budget of US$120 million the probe mission was a relatively cheap foray into the gathering of space data The probersquos restricted budget was necessary because the new Discovery program had cost US$150 million and NASA had a three-year cap on the development of new spacecraft Johns Hopkins University successfully engineered the craft within the stringent guidelines25

20 February Receiving congratulations from the rest of the international space community Russia celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Russian space station Mir The pathbreaking spacecraft had hosted a steady stream of astronauts for long-term stays in space throughout the late 1980s and 1990s transcending many of the changes in the political structure of its home country The Soviet space program had launched the first Mir module on 20 February 1986 from the desert of Kazakhstan but because of Cold War tensions the Soviets had not released specific information about the station as it entered orbit module by module Rockets had transported the individual modules into space where cosmonauts assembled them The fully assembled space station weighed 130 tons (120000 kilograms or 120 tonnes) As tensions between the United States and the former Soviet Union lessened Shuttle missions to Mir had become frequent During the 1990s many countries including the United States had paid the fledgling Soviet space administration which became the Russian Space Agency hundreds of millions of dollars to send their astronauts to Mir Thus Mir had provided the USSR with a needed source of revenue However since the fall of the Soviet Union the Russian space program had received only one-fifth of the government funding provided to the Soviet space program In 1996 even with Mir in an advanced state of decline Russian officials remained committed to preserving the aging craftrsquos lifespan Marcia S Smith an aerospace expert with the Congressional Research Service described Mirrsquos state as akin to ldquoa car that has 200000 miles [320000 kilometers] on itrdquo Nevertheless the space station had provided scientists with the only spacecraft in space consistently occupied by humans for a decade a significant contribution that deserved commemoration26

21 February

24 Ann Hodges ldquolsquoHome Improvementrsquo Project Takes On a New Kind of Spacerdquo Houston Chronicle 12 February 1996 25 NASA ldquoNEAR Sent To Study Erosrdquo HQ Bulletin 20 February 1996 3 Associated Press ldquoAsteroid Visitrdquo 17 February 1996 26 European Space Agency news release 15 February 1996 Associated Press ldquoRussia-Spacerdquo 20 February 1996 Associated Press ldquoRussian Space Program Drifting Toward Disasterrdquo 19 February 1996

7


Russia launched the Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts The Russian Space Agency intended the mission to Mir to bring Mir residents Yuri P Gidzenko Sergei V Avdeyev and Thomas Reiter back to Earth after their lengthy stay aboard the space station27

22 February Mission STS-75 the 19th mission of Shuttle Columbia launched from KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida A seven-person crew embarked on the mission scheduled to last 13 days Scott J Horowitz the first Shuttle pilot with a PhD captained STS-75 NASA astronauts Andrew M Allen Jeffrey A Hoffman and Franklin R Chang-Digraveaz Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier and two Italian astronauts Umberto Guidoni and Maurizio Cheli made up the crew One of the missionrsquos priorities was to place in flight the Italian tethered satellite system (TSS) which scientists had designed to harness new sources of power for the Space Shuttle An attempt in 1992 to deploy the TSS had failed when a bolt in the systemrsquos reel mechanism caused the tether to jam The US- Italian satellite had cost US$443 million to produce The satellite extended on a 12-mile (19-kilometer) tether had the potential to use its orbit to create electrical power for other spacecraft NASA planned to fly the satellite for 22 hours To retrieve the satellite the crew intended to retract the tether until the satellite was about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the Shuttle allowing it to hover at this distance while the Shuttle maneuvered into position to pick it

28up

25 February NASA announced that the tethered satellite experiment had failed The 12-mile (19-kilometer) tether attaching the 05-ton (450-kilogram or 045-tonne) satellite to Shuttle Columbia broke unexpectedly just as the tether had nearly reached its full extension Before the tether broke the experiment to use an orbiting satellite to produce electricity had been proceeding smoothly The astronauts had been in the process of extending the satellite from the Space Shuttle for more than 5 hours when they noted a decrease in tension and realized that the tether and satellite had broken away NASA Commander Andrew M Allen responded to the break immediately directing the Shuttle away from the satellite to prevent a collision However the satellite never came close to the Shuttle it was more than 18 miles (29 kilometers) away only a few minutes after breaking free NASA officials could not immediately identify the cause of the break The astronauts aboard the Shuttle managed to record images of the satellite trailing away from the Shuttle This footage a black and white rendering of the tether disappearing into space reached Flight Command Center in Houston Texas shortly after the event ldquoThose are some tether dynamics we did not want to seerdquo stated one Mission Control operative NASA dismissed the idea of attempting to retrieve the satellite explaining that although it was technically possible such a mission would be too dangerous and too costly in consumption of fuel29

27 NASA Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 1996 Activities (Washington DC 1996) p 102 28 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Mission STS-75mdashPress Kitrdquo news release 96-27 February 1996 William J Broad ldquoShuttle Blasts Off for High-Wire Act To Unfurl 125 Miles of Electrical Cable in Spacerdquo New York Times 23 February 1996 William Harwood ldquoShuttle Begins Mission To Deploy Space Power Ball on 125-Mile Tetherrdquo Washington Post 23 February 1996 29NASA ldquoSTS-75 Mission Control Status Report No 10rdquo 26 February 1996 Steve Marshall ldquoSatellite Tether Snaps Shuttle Saferdquo USA Today 26 February 1996 William Harwood ldquoScience Satellite Is Lost as Shuttle Tether Breaksrdquo Washington Post 26 February 1996

8


26 February NASA formed an independent panel to review the failure of the tethered satellite experiment and the loss of the satellite NASA selected Kenneth J Szalai Director of Dryden Flight Research Center to chair the panel The formation of such an investigative body in the wake of a costly loss conformed to standard practice under NASArsquos Space Flight Operations Contingency Plan In a NASA press release announcing the panelrsquos formation Szalai stated ldquogiven the public investment in the tethered satellite it is important that we find out what went wrongrdquo30

27 February Continuing its efforts to cut costs by using private contractors NASA awarded McDonnell Douglas Aerospace a US$500 million eight-year contract to provide ldquofixed-price medium-light (Med-Lite) class expendable launch vehicle servicesrdquo31 NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center managed the program and the Orbital Sciences Corporation served as the major subcontractor At the time of the agreement NASA had planned three Med-Lite missions launching from both the East Coast and the West Coast32

MARCH 1996

3 March NASA scientist Benjamin F Chao explained to the New York Times the results of his research on Earthrsquos orbit A geophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center Chao attributed the Earthrsquos slightly changed orbital pattern to the increased construction of dams As the planetrsquos population has grown people had attempted to maximize use of Earthrsquos limited water resources by building reservoirs Using geophysics international data and theoretical calculations Chao postulated that this increase in impounded water on the Earthrsquos surface had actually helped speed up the Earthrsquos orbit Chao first made public his findings in the Geophysical Research Papers Some members of the scientific community challenged his conclusions33

Columbia astronauts set a series of small fires inside the Shuttle to help NASA scientists improve their design of smoke detectors and fire extinguishers for use in a weightless environment The fires spread quickly within the enclosed vehicle Astronaut Jeffrey A Hoffman marveled at the behavior of the flames which was completely different in a weightless environment from that typically observed on Earth The fires scattered quickly and burned much more intensely than on Earth NASA had never before tested the fire-detection equipment in a space environment The fire equipment worked properly and the crew put out all fires without incident34

4 March

30NASA ldquoNASA To Form Independent Review Panelrdquo news release 96-39 26 February 1996 31 Less than two years into the agreement McDonnell Douglas Aerospace merged with the Boeing Company 32NASA ldquoMcDonnell Douglas Aerospace Awarded Contract To Provide Med-Lite ELV Servicerdquo news release 96shy40 27 February 1996 The Boeing Company ldquoBoeing Completes McDonnell Douglas Mergerrdquo news release 31 July 1997 33 Malcolm W Browne ldquoDams for Water Supply Are Altering Earthrsquos Orbit Expert Saysrdquo New York Times 3 March 1996 34 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Astronauts Set Fires To Check Safety Equipmentrdquo 3 March 1996

9


The Communist Party of China acknowledged for the first time that a failed satellite launch occurring on 15 February 1996 had killed six people and injured 57 others The Long March 3B rocket had exploded destroying the 15 Intelsat satellite and damaging 80 homes The secretive government of the Peoplersquos Republic of China had denied the major accident announcing simply that a setback had occurred However foreign news sources had captured video footage of the launch rocket as it careened out of control and exploded in a highly populated area The Chinese government ended the news blackout which had prevented its own citizens from learning of the disaster stating Chinarsquos intention to delay future launch plans35

Henry McDonald became Director of Ames Research Center (ARC) in Mountain View California NASA had selected McDonald for the position in January 1996 after the selection of former Director Ken K Munechika as NASArsquos first Director of Moffett Federal Airfield A former professor of mechanical engineering at Pennsylvania State University McDonald brought to NASA both industrial and academic experience36

5 March For the first time in its history NASA allowed a researcher to direct an experiment from his home university rather than from Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Martin Glickman led a group of scientists from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute taking control of a crystal experiment aboard Shuttle Columbia Both NASA and the scientific community praised the experiment as a crucial step in the relationship between astronauts and academic scientists Because they did not have to travel to NASArsquos MSFC in Huntsville Alabama the scientists were able to use their own instruments and data systems Using remote control they repeatedly cooled and heated the crystal samples on the Shuttle Scientists hoped that allowing universities to control experiments from their own institutions would facilitate greater student participation in experiments conducted in space37

7 March NASA released Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images revealing much of the surface of Pluto for the first time The Pluto imaging team declared the quality of the pictures better than they had expected ldquoHubble has brought Pluto from a fuzzy distant dot of light to a world which we can begin to map and watch for surface changesrdquo remarked Marc W Buie a member of the team The HST took snapshots of nearly the entire surface of the planet during 64 days of its rotation The pictures showed Plutorsquos complexity revealing nearly a dozen distinct provinces and confirming the existence of a polar ice cap which scientists had suspected but had been unable to verify NASA officials were optimistic that the images would pave the way for a proposed Pluto flyby mission in the coming years Pluto remained the only planet not yet visited by a spacecraft38

8 March NASA agreed to restructure and extend its contract with USBI Company which had previously assembled and refurbished the Shuttlersquos solid rocket boosters The new contract extended the

35 Reuters ldquoChina Fiery Launch Killed 6 Injured 57rdquo 4 March 1996 36 NASA ldquoMcDonald Named Director of Ames Research Centerrdquo news release 96-8 19 January 1996 37 Associated Press ldquoCampus Takes Control of Shuttle Experimentrdquo 5 March 1996 38 NASA ldquoHubble Reveals Surface of Pluto for First Timerdquo news release 96-43 7 March 1996

10


partnership for 45 months paying US$500 million to USBI to support the Shuttle program Based on the terms of the agreement and on USBIrsquos production schedule NASA estimated that the partnership would cover approximately seven Shuttle missions annually for the duration of the contract39

9 March Space Shuttle Columbia touched down at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida after a 16-day mission clouded by the disappointment of losing a tethered satellite NASA delayed the landing for one day because of poor weather on the coast of Florida40

12 March Having received 550 proposals NASArsquos Office of Life and Microgravity Science and Applications awarded US$17 million to 168 scientists from 32 different states to conduct microgravity research NASA and the scientific community hypothesized that further investigation into the effects of low gravity on physical processes would lead to major advances in fluid physics and material sciences The scientists hoped that if they could control the process of the formation of materials they could develop and improve a wide range of materials and products including metal alloys semiconductors ceramics glasses and polymers41

13 March NASA announced that it had developed a prototype for new software to teach pilots how to fly commercial aircraft The improved technological capabilities of computers had allowed Steve Casner a scientist at NASArsquos ARC to develop a program imitating the flight management system of an automated ldquoglassrdquo cockpit and allowing pilots to use their laptops to simulate flying Pilots could load the program onto their own computers supplementing the training they had received through classroom instruction and flight simulators The program featured five windows ldquoa controldisplay unit mode control panel two maps showing the aircraftrsquos lateral track and its vertical track and a flight mode enunciator showing which flight systems [were] currently controlling the airplanerdquo42

NASA selected astronaut Wendy B Lawrence to replace Charles J Precourt as Director of Operations Russia making Lawrence the primary contact between NASA and Russian Space Agency officials As Director of Operations Russia Lawrence became responsible for overseeing the training and preparation of US astronauts at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City Russia outside of Moscow Lawrence was the sixth astronaut to serve in this position43

14 March NASA released its blueprint for the future the ldquoNASA Strategic Plan 1996rdquo The plan laid out NASArsquos vision for the United Statesrsquo space exploration noted its history and discussed possible

39 NASA ldquoNASA RestructuresExtends USBI Contract for Solid Rocket Booster Elementsrdquo news release C96-c 8 March 1996 40 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Lands Safely After Trying Missionrdquo 10 March 1996 41 NASA ldquoScientists Receive Microgravity Research Grantsrdquo news release 96-44 12 March 1996 42 NASA ldquoNASA Develops New Laptop Pilot Training Toolrdquo news release 96-47 13 March 1996 43 NASA ldquoLawrence To Replace Precourt as NASA Manager in Russiardquo news release 96-49 13 March 1996

11


changes in strategy committing NASA to a threefold mission scientific research space exploration and development and transfer of technology Furthermore the plan outlined NASArsquos quest to address sciencersquos fundamental questions such as how did the universe galaxies stars and planets form and evolve and does life in any form however simple or complex carbon-based or other exist elsewhere than on planet Earth NASA intended the document as the starting point for future decisions regarding the allocation of its resources44

20 March At the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference Adriana C Ocampo a geologist at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced the discovery of a chain of impact craters in Chad According to a team of scientists the presence of the craters suggested that a sizable comet or asteroid might have struck ancient Earth Scientists discovered the craters using the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C) which flew on Shuttle Endeavourrsquos Mission STS-59 in 1994 The impact craters were only the second chain of large craters ever discovered on Earth and the first impact craters found using the SIR-C technology Ocampo warned that scientists still needed to excavate the ground extensively before they could be sure that the craters were indeed impact structures45

22 March Shuttle Atlantis launched from KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida setting out for the Mir space station Space Shuttle Mission STS-76 was the third Space ShuttlendashMir docking mission The Shuttle carried six astronauts including Shannon W Lucid destined for a five-month stay on the Russian space outpost Complications arose when flight controllers at Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas detected a potential problem during the launch A minor leak had occurred in one of the Shuttlersquos three hydraulic systems used to move the wing flaps After analyzing the extent of the problem however NASA officials determined that the mission could go on as planned NASA planned the mission to last nine days connecting with Mir on the third day46

Former NASA astronaut Robert F Overmyer died while test piloting the experimental Cirrus VK-30 aircraft near Duluth Minnesota Overmyer was performing a series of stalls at an altitude of more than 8000 feet (2400 meters) when the aircraft ldquodeparted from controlled flightrdquo Overmyer had served in the US Marine Corps from 1959 to 1986 becoming a NASA astronaut in 1969 and piloting Shuttle Mission STS-5 in 1982 After leaving NASA and the Marine Corps in 1986 Overmyer worked for McDonnell Douglas Aerospace47

24 March NASA astronaut Shannon W Lucid became the first female resident of the Mir space station Lucid traveled aboard Shuttle Atlantis to reach Mir planning to remain on the Russian station for five months She joined Russian cosmonauts Yuri I Onufrienko and Yury V Usachev for the long-term stay Atlantisrsquos crew unloaded more than 5000 pounds (2300 kilograms) of supplies

44 NASA ldquoNASA Strategic Plan 1998rdquo NASA policy directive (NPD)-10001 httpwwwhqnasagovofficensp NSPTOChtml (accessed 5 February 2008) NASA ldquoNASA Releases Strategy for the Futurerdquo news release 14 March 1996 45 NASA ldquoChain of Impact Craters Suggested by Spaceborne Radar Imagesrdquo news release 96-55 20 March 1996 46 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Mission STS-76mdashPress Kitrdquo news release 96-46 March 1996 William Harwood ldquoShuttle Takes Off for Russian Mir Linkuprdquo Washington Post March 23 1996 47 Edward H Phillips ldquoOvermyer Dies in Crashrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 144 no 14 (1 April 1996) 29

12


and 1000 pounds (450 kilograms) of experiment samples and equipment during the Shuttlersquos docking Lucid replaced US astronaut Norman E Thagard who had spent 110 days with the Russian crew Lucidrsquos arrival generated some controversy In attempting to convey Russiarsquos openness to having a woman aboard Mir cosmonaut Yuri N Glazkov commented that the crew would appreciate Lucidrsquos presence because ldquowe know women love to cleanrdquo Not surprisingly some people resented his remark48

27 March NASA astronauts Michael R ldquoRichrdquo Clifford and Linda M Godwin made an historic spacewalk outside the orbiting Mir space station For the first time astronauts exited Mir with the Shuttle docked at the station Clifford and Godwin wearing jet packs as a precaution scaled the passageway connecting Shuttle Atlantis with the Mir complex installing several experiment boxes on the outside of the space station Some of these boxes were ldquocosmic dust catchersrdquo meant to gather samples of the materials that might smash into orbiting space stations The spacewalk and associated experiments were part of ongoing research in preparation for the construction of the new International Space Station NASA regarded the spacewalk as more dangerous than usual because the Shuttle was docked with Mir and thus unable to give chase quickly if one of the astronauts broke away from the spacecraft49

Preparing to take over the administration of the Shuttle program from NASA the Rockwell-Lockheed Martin joint venture United Space Alliance (USA) named James C Adamson as its chief operating officer Adamson came to USA from Lockheed Martin where he had served since 1994 as a group vice president and general manager of Lockheedrsquos Engineering and Science Services Adamson had served as an astronaut at NASA from 1984 to 1992 spending more than 334 hours in space as a part of Missions STS-28 and STS-4350

APRIL 1996

1 April Shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in Californiarsquos Mojave Desert The nine-day mission nearly came to an abrupt halt when Atlantisrsquos crew had difficulty opening the Shuttlersquos cargo bay doors during descent After considering an emergency landing NASA controllers directed Atlantisrsquos crew to open the doors manually The crew successfully performed this necessary maneuver only to confront dangerous weather that prevented their landing at Kennedy Space Center51

4 April An international team of researchers announced that while tracking Comet Hyakutake in March 1996 they had discovered x-rays emitting from the comet German scientists working at Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching Germany had collaborated on the

48 William Harwood ldquoUS Woman To Start Stay on Russian Space Stationrdquo Washington Post 24 March 1996 Associated Press ldquoFemale Astronaut Settles In on Mirrdquo 25 March 1996 49 Associated Press ldquoSpacewalking Astronauts Venture Outside Atlantis-Mir Complexrdquo 27 March 1996 Todd Halverson ldquoWalkers Prepare for Historic Trek Outside Mir Stationrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 27 March 1996 50 Houston Chronicle ldquoUnited Space Alliance Taps New Top Officersrdquo 27 March 1996 51 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Back Safely After Mir Missionrdquo 1 April 1996

13


project with NASA scientists based at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland Konrad Dennryl who had directed the use of Germanyrsquos ROSAT (Roumlntgensatellit) for the project called the discovery of the x-rays ldquoa thrilling momentrdquo The comet emitted far stronger radiation signals than the scientists had expected about 100 times brighter than anticipated The scientists could not explain why the comet gave off such intense x-rays but offered two preliminary hypotheses 1) the gaseous molecules surrounding the comet absorbed x-rays from the Sun before reemitting the same x-rays or 2) violent collisions between the comet material and the supersonic wind and particles from the Sun produced the extraordinarily strong x-rays The scientists vowed to ascertain conclusively why the comet x-rays behaved as they did52

9 April Rockwell International Corporation pled guilty to charges of violating federal law in disposing of hazardous waste Federal prosecutors had charged the company with violating the law after a 1994 explosion at a Rockwell rocket-testing facility in Southern California killed scientists Otto K Heiney and Larry A Pugh Rockwellrsquos Chief Executive Officer Donald R Beall called the incident ldquoa corporate failure for which we accept responsibilityrdquo By pleading guilty Rockwell acknowledged liability and agreed to pay a US$65 million fine According to the US Department of Justice the case was only one aspect of a long-term investigation into Rockwellrsquos compliance with environmental regulations an investigation that Rockwellrsquos guilty plea did not end Federal auditors were also looking into the possibility that Rockwell had overcharged NASA and the US Department of Defense for disposal costs53

NASA made its high-altitude research plane available to the disaster-recovery team responsible for containing hazardous leakage at the California Gulch Superfund site in Leadville Colorado The ER-2 plane a U-2 spy plane adapted for civilian use captured thousands of measurements per second and its spectrometer mapped hundreds of square miles during each reconnaissance flight Scientists used NASArsquos plane to map minerals and other substances to help them detect the location of acid leaks from mines and heavy-metal contamination Officials estimated that the ER-2 planersquos identification of contaminated areas had saved cleanup agencies about one year and more than US$50000054

11 April The US Space Foundation inducted into its Space Technology Hall of Fame three technologies that NASA had originally developed for its astronauts antishock trousers flame-retardant seat materials and the radiation barrier The Space Foundation recognized the technologies as pathbreaking discoveries that had enhanced the quality of life on Earth Scientists and engineers at Ames Research Center had developed the first two technologies and members of the Apollo program at Johnson Space Center (JSC) had discovered the radiation barrier NASA employees had often referred to the dual use of its technologies as spin-offs recognizing that such inventions served to validate the expenditure of taxpayersrsquo funds on NASArsquos research projects According to a NASA spokesperson the technologies ldquoare not merely secondary applications

52 NASA ldquoFirst X-rays from a Comet Discoveredrdquo new release 96-66 4 April 1996 John Noble Wilford ldquoScientists Seek Explanation for X-rays Seen from Cometrdquo New York Times 5 April 1996 53 Andy Pasztor ldquoRockwell Probe To Continue After Unit Pleads Guilty to Waste-Disposal Chargerdquo Wall Street Journal 9 April 1996 Mark Reed ldquoFirm Agrees To Pay Fine in Fatal Blastrdquo Los Angeles Times 9 April 1996 54 New York Times ldquoNASA Research Plane Aids in Waste Cleanuprdquo 9 April 1996

14


They provide direct quantifiable and invaluable benefits to the American taxpayer and the domestic economyrdquo The US Space Foundation made the inductions at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs Colorado The Foundation had inducted 25 technologies into the Hall of Fame since the establishment of the awards in 198855

12 April NASA and the scientific community celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Space Shuttle program NASA had adopted the Shuttle as a means of controlling the costs of exploring space However NASA conceded that since its deployment the Shuttle had flown only nine times per year compared with the 24 to 60 Shuttle flights per year anticipated Furthermore the cost of flying the Shuttle had reached almost US$500000 more per mission than expected During its first 15 years the Shuttles had flown 76 missions including 51 following the Challenger accident The Shuttles had transported 545 tons (490000 kilograms or 490 tonnes) of payloads to space bringing back to Earth 185 tons (17000 kilograms or 17 tonnes) of payloads During the same period 440 astronauts from 12 countries flew aboard the Shuttles NASA experts predicted that the Shuttle would remain the primary vehicle of space exploration well into the 21st

century56

NASA completed the first step in its transition to using a single contractor to conduct all Shuttle operations signing two novation agreements with the newly formed United Space Alliance (USA) NASA had announced in 1995 that it would consolidate its Shuttle operations under a single contract with USA on a noncompetitive basis When Rockwell International Corporation and Lockheed Martin Corporation developed USA as a joint venture the two companies already held nearly 70 percent of the dollar value of all Shuttle-related contracts NASA officials expected that the move to a single contract would reduce costs by eliminating duplicative work and streamlining management57

15 April NASA disclosed the startling discoveries of Rice University astronomer C Robert OrsquoDell and graduate student Kerry P Handron who had used images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope to pinpoint thousands of gigantic tadpole-shaped objects surrounding a dying star the first time that scientists had observed the forms in such abundance The scientists hypothesized that the final outbursts of the dying star probably caused the gaseous knots each several billion miles across OrsquoDell concluded that if a dying star caused the gaseous knots then trillions of these forms might litter the universe58

With funding from NASArsquos Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications and the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station researchers at Utah State University successfully developed a strain of wheat suitable for growth in space The space wheat called USU-Apogee produced a yield equivalent to 600 bushels of grain per acre (21000 liters of grain per 4100 square meters) a rate three times more than the rate achieved in previous experiments

55 NASA ldquoNASA Life-Saving Technologies Enter Space Hall of Famerdquo news release 96-69 10 April 1996 56 Martin Burkey ldquoA Lean Mean Teen Shuttle Turns 15rdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 13 April 1996 Seth Borenstein ldquoCostly History Dogs Shuttle on Anniversaryrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 12 April 1996 57 NASA ldquoShuttle Contracts Take First Step Toward Consolidationrdquo news release 96-73 12 April 1996 58 NASA ldquoHubble Finds Thousands of Gaseous Fragments Around Starrdquo news release 96-74 15 April 1996

15


Researchers had worked for more than a decade developing the wheat During the tests USU-Apogee had thrived under the difficult conditions of artificial sunlight and high levels of carbon dioxide In conditions approximating the environment in space the wheat grew on short stalks produced an unusually large number of seeds and maintained green leaf tips (reflecting proper calcium levels) Scientists hoped that astronauts would be able to grow the wheat in the future International Space Station as a more economical means of providing food for long-term space residents than frequent Shuttle supply missions59

17 April NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin informed employees that NASA Headquarters in Washington DC would reduce its staff by more than 50 percent citing ldquoincreasing budget pressuresrdquo Under the reduction plan staff at NASA Headquarters would decrease from 1430 to between 650 and 700 in less than one yearrsquos time The Clinton administration had continued to push for government-wide budget cutbacks throughout the 1990s Don Fuqua President of the Aerospace Industries Association described the staff reduction as a case of the federal government following the example of the private sector According to Fuqua before NASA decided to reorganize most commercial aerospace business had already reorganized for greater efficiency60

18 April Chinese scientists attending a conference under the direction of the World Monuments Fund announced that space radar images had allowed them to locate and study two ancient previously undetectable sections of the Great Wall of China Spaceborne Imaging Radar CX-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar aboard Shuttle Endeavourrsquos Mission STS-59 produced the images in 1994 Diane L Evans a scientist at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory called the discovery an unexpected benefit of NASArsquos research ldquoArchaeology wasnrsquot one of our original science objectives but the imaging radar data has been found to be very useful for this type of researchrdquo Because the radar images penetrated vegetation and loose sand archaeologists were able to use the images to explore the site without excavation The radar images revealed sections of the wall built in two different periods⎯one during the Ming Dynasty and the other during the Sui Dynasty61

23 April Russia successfully launched the 21-ton (19000-kilogram or 19-tonne) Priroda module the last major component of the aging Mir space station aboard a robotic rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Russian scientists designed the Priroda module primarily as a laboratory for observing Earth The module also contained equipment for NASA astronaut Shannon W Lucidrsquos stay aboard the station NASA officials at JSC monitored the launch Priroda carried a magnetically levitated experiment platform a spectrometer and a ldquoglove boxrdquo

59 NASA ldquoUtah State University Develops Space Croprdquo news release 96-75 15 April 1996 60 NASA ldquoAdditional Personnel Reductions Planned for Agency Headquartersrdquo news release 96-76 17 April 1996 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNASA Speeds Up Downsizingrdquo Washington Post 18 April 1996 Mike Causey ldquoNASA To Lighten Pay Loadrdquo Washington Post 18 April 1996 Warren Ferster and Jennifer Heronema ldquoNASA Cuts Headquarters Jobs Deeper Fasterrdquo Space News 22minus28 April 1996 4minus5 61 NASA ldquoSpace Radar Reveals Ancient Segments of Chinarsquos Great Wallrdquo news release 96-77 18 April 1996 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Found Lost Sections of the Great Wall in rsquo94rdquo 22 April 1996

16


allowing astronauts to handle potentially hazardous material The module was the sixth major portion of the Mir complex launched by Russia since the Soviet Union began the project in 1986 Budget shortfalls in the Russian space program had caused some concern that the final module might not reach Mir as planned62

24 April Without holding any subcommittee hearings on the matter the US House Committee on Science and Technology voted to trim NASArsquos budget for 1997 by US$450 million NASA operated under a US$138 billion budget in 1996 Most of the cuts were from the budget of the initiative Mission to Planet Earth63

30 April Harry C Holloway resigned from his post as NASA Associate Administrator for the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications Holloway was the first person to hold the appointment after Administrator Daniel S Goldin created the position in March 1993 Holloway planned to return to the School of Medicine at Uniformed Services University During his tenure Holloway had established programs to conduct experimental studies in orbit and instituted the strategic plan for the Human Exploration and Development of Space Holloway had been instrumental in strengthening ties between NASA and the National Institutes of Health overseeing the signing of 10 agreements between the two agencies64

At the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society astronomers working with NASArsquos Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) spacecraft announced the discovery of the fastest vibrations ever recorded in a star system The vibrations occur when massive neutron stars begin to die out expelling the outer layers of their solid crusts and creating powerful x-rays The astronomers working with the RXTE recorded x-rays flickering at up to 1130 times per second Scientists were unsure why this process occurred According to NASA ldquothe possibility that the RXTE has detected actual waves in neutron stars or a very fast rotation period of one such star is of great scientific interestrdquo65

MAY 1996

1 May NASA announced its 1996 astronaut candidate class which included the first set of identical twins ever selected⎯Mark E Kelly and Scott J Kelly The sibling US Navy pilots joined 33 other astronauts in the class NASA selected 10 pilots and 25 mission specialists from an applicant pool of more than 2400 candidates including members of the US Army Air Force Coast Guard Marine Corps and Navy Six members of the class held PhDs in their respective fields and one was an MD NASA selected the astronaut class the largest in nearly 20 years

62 Mark Carreau ldquoRussia Launches Final Major Mir Componentrdquo Houston Chronicle 24 April 1996 63 Brett Davis ldquoPanel Sets $450 Million NASA Budget Cutrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 25 April 1996 64 NASA ldquoScience Head To Leave NASArdquo news release 96-80 30 April 1996 65 NASA ldquoNASA Spacecraft Discovers Fastest Stellar Vibrations Yetrdquo news release 96-81 30 April 1996 Associated Press ldquoNASA Instrument Detects Fastest Vibrations Yet Seen in Universerdquo 30 April 1996

17


from 16 different states in addition one astronaut candidate had been born in Argentina and another in the United Kingdom66

2 May Joseph B Gurman of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center announced the pathbreaking discoveries of a team of scientists monitoring the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft According to Gurman SOHO had revealed unexpected activity on the Sun as well as the best images yet of the plume-like structures extending from the Sun SOHOrsquos scientists were excited and surprised to find that ldquomovies made from SOHO ultraviolet data show that there is continuous motion and action everywhere on the Sunrdquo The scientists observed that the Sunrsquos plumes extend more than 13 million miles (21 million kilometers) into space NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) collaborated on the SOHO project67

Former US Representative Norman Y Mineta received NASArsquos Distinguished Service Medal the highest civilian honor awarded by NASA Mineta had served 21 years in the US Congress representing Californiarsquos Silicon Valley in the House of Representatives As chairperson of the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation he had played a vital role in bolstering the nationrsquos transportation infrastructure and fostering technological research Mineta remarked that serving over the long term as the senior member of the House Committee on Science and Technology had given him the opportunity to see firsthand NASArsquos significant achievements When he accepted the award at a private ceremony Mineta said ldquoIrsquom deeply honored to be recognized by NASA for any contributions I made furthering the mission of our nationrsquos space operationsrdquo68

3 May NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft discovered a giant iron core taking up half of the diameter of Jupiterrsquos moon Io as well as a large hole in Jupiterrsquos magnetic field Galileo Project Scientist Torrence V Johnson of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) identified Io as the most ldquogeographically active body in the [s]olar [s]ystemrdquo Galileo scientists also measured the intense heat Jupiter generates noting that the planet has a massive gravity field Galileo managed to come within 559 miles (900 kilometers) of Jupiter during its 1995 flyby allowing scientists to locate the iron core and the hole in the magnetic field Although they were still grappling with the significance of the ldquocompletely unexpected findsrdquo scientists reported their early analysis of the data in Science magazine69

10 May At Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) NASA announced that it had taken a major step forward in preparations for the International Space Station (ISS) the stationrsquos air purification system had passed a month-long test NASA scientists tested the ISSrsquos air pressure and the ability of its air system to regulate the mixture of carbon dioxide and oxygen that the astronauts

66 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Astronaut Class of 1996rdquo news release 96-84 1 May 1996 Marcia Dunn ldquoIn NASA First Identical Twins Selected for Astronaut Corpsrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 2 May 1996 67 NASA ldquoUnexpectedly Active Sun and New Insights into Solar Plumes Foundrdquo news release 96-87 2 May 1996 68 US Newswire ldquoNorman Y Mineta Receives NASArsquos Distinguished Service Medalrdquo 2 May 1996 69 J D Anderson W L Sjogren and G Schubert ldquoGalileo Gravity Results and the Internal Structure of Lordquo Science 272 no 5262 (3 May 1996) 709minus712 NASA ldquoGalileo Finds Giant Iron Core in Jupiterrsquos Moon Iordquo news release 96-89 3 May 1996

18


would breathe In the simulation scientists used a 6200-cubic-foot (176-cubic-meter) module from which they had removed the oxygen The air system not only proved it could maintain the proper levels of both oxygen and carbon dioxide but also performed satisfactorily at a reduced power level Engineers hoped to reduce the power level of the ISS during its nighttime orbit The system called the Atmosphere Revitalization Subsystem demonstrated that it could provide healthy working and living conditions for the astronauts on board the ISS70

15 May NASA and the ESA made available images taken of Comet Hyakutake as it approached the Sun The US Naval Research Laboratory had captured the pictures during the appearance of the comet in late April 1996 The Naval Research Laboratory had built a special instrument⎯the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO)⎯to record the images Operating aboard SOHO LASCO suppressed the glare of the Sun exposing the comet and its tails In addition the instrument produced the equivalent of a time-lapse movie of Hyakutake thereby documenting the cometrsquos tails as they changed direction in reaction to the Sunrsquos forces LASCO also allowed scientists to observe coronal mass ejections⎯the expulsion of hot gases Researchers used the data to learn more about how comets interact with the Sun and about the behavior of comet tails71

17 May Peter H Diamandis President of Angel Technologies Corporation an aerospace firm located in St Louis Missouri offered a US$10 million prize to the first private aviators to complete a suborbital flight into space Diamandis stated that the object of the prize was to motivate private companies to invest in space exploration someday making spaceflights open to the public ldquoWersquore looking to spark a constructive competitionrdquo Diamandis explained To claim the prize the privately financed and built aircraft would have to ascend to 62 miles (100 kilometers) high twice within a period of two weeks delivering three passengers safely to space and back Diamandis claimed that creating an entirely reusable Space Shuttle would considerably decrease the cost of going to space opening the space frontier to people who had not trained as professional astronauts Diamandis intended to announce the winner of the ldquoX Prizerdquo on 18 May beneath the St Louis Gateway Arch Creator of the Voyager and top contender for the prize Burt Rutan as well as NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin planned to attend the award

72ceremony

19 May Shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida on Mission STS-77 scheduled to last 10 days John H Casper making his fourth spaceflight commanded the crew and Curtis L Brown Jr piloted the Shuttle Four mission specialists Daniel W Bursch Marc Garneau Mario Runco Jr and Andrew S W Thomas completed the flight crew NASA planned various science experiments for the mission including deployment of a retrievable satellite to test the feasibility of using satellites with inflatable parts NASArsquos Office of Space Access and Technology sponsored most of the payloads aboard Endeavour The Shuttle also carried a privately developed SPACEHAB module holding nearly 3000 pounds

70 NASA ldquoSpace Station Air Purification System Completes Major Testrdquo news release 10 May 1996 71 NASA ldquoSOHO Images Comet Hyakutakersquos Close Encounter with the Sunrdquo news release 15 May 1996 72 Paul Hoversten ldquoA Space Race with a Lofty Goal Cashrdquo USA Today 17 May 1996

19


(1400 kilograms) of science experiments NASA had contracted with SPACEHAB Inc in 1990 to construct research laboratories Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau was making his second trip into space73

20 May Endeavourrsquos crew successfully tested a giant inflatable antenna deploying the structure and gathering data during its orbit Project Manager Steven Bard a NASA scientist at JPL called the successful test a giant step toward developing lightweight cost-effective equipment for space research The silver inflatable antenna about the size of a tennis court cost US$14 million to develop The Shuttle astronauts used the Shuttlersquos robotic arm to launch the small satellite carrying the antenna The crew situated Endeavour about 400 feet (122 meters) immediately above the antenna to observe its behavior after deployment but when the antenna made some unexpected tumbling rotations the astronauts moved the Shuttle to a safer distance After completing the test the astronauts set off a series of small explosions to cut loose the antenna Before the mission began NASA officials had determined that deflating and recapturing the antenna would be too risky and costly to attempt74

21 May The Boeing Company Honeywell Space Systems and the S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia) based in Kaliningrad Russia announced a new venture to reduce significantly the cost and time involved in transporting payloads to the Mir space station Boeing estimated that the service would save one year and would cut the cost of transporting a standard payload to space by at least US$7 million The three companies split duties to maximize efficiency Boeing assumed control of the overall management and payload-system integration Honeywell accepted responsibility for providing payload-interface units and payload-integration support and RSC Energia signed on to provide launch services and to oversee installation on Mir Decreasing the expenses involved in sustaining Mir had become urgent in the 1990s when both Russian and American space agencies had to respond to their governmentsrsquo respective budget cuts75

Scientists revealed that their analysis of the data from NASArsquos Galileo probe had offered new insights into Jupiterrsquos climate The probe found winds of 400 miles (640 kilometers) per hour extending about 10000 miles (16000 kilometers) from the planetrsquos core to its cloud top and producing storms that could last for centuries The findings indicated that heat at Jupiterrsquos core fueled the winds Galileo released a probe which parachuted 400 miles (640 kilometers) through Jupiterrsquos atmosphere to gather its data enduring temperatures ranging from -171degF to 305degF (shy113degC to 152degC) The probe exploded after gathering and transmitting the data76

73 Warren E Leary ldquoShuttle Begins 10-Day Technology Flightrdquo New York Times 20 May 1996 NASA ldquoSpace Commercialization and Technology Demonstrations Highlight Shuttle Mission STS-77rdquo news release 96-83 May 1996 74 William Harwood ldquoInflatable Antenna Passes Testrdquo Washington Post 21 May 1996 Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttle Deploys Giant Antennardquo Washington Times 21 May 1996 75 The Boeing Company ldquoBoeing Honeywell and Energia Join in Offering New Commercial Payload Service to Russian Space Stationrdquo news release 21 May 1996 76 Paul Hoversten ldquoJupiterrsquos Winds 10000-Mile-Deep lsquoGiant Flywheelrsquordquo USA Today 22 May 1996 NASA ldquoGalileo Probe Data Spurs New Concepts for Jupiterrsquos Circulation and Formationrdquo news release 96-103 21 May 1996

20


22 May The trend of commercializing space exploration continued as Pepsi-Cola Company announced the companyrsquos plan to use Russian cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station to record the first TV advertisement filmed in space PepsiCo planned to record images of a giant replica of a Pepsi can in space PepsiCorsquos Chief Marketing Officer Massimo F drsquoAmore called space ldquothe ultimate frontier of global marketingrdquo The Russian Space Agency expected to receive nearly US$5 million for the advertising stunt providing a welcome infusion of cash for the struggling postcommunist space program In response to its competitorrsquos advertisement plans the Coca-Cola Company furnished Endeavourrsquos Mission STS-77 with a soda dispenser equipped for use in space The machine cost Coca-Cola Company US$15 million to develop77

23 May NASA revealed that the joint US-Italian team investigating the failure of the Italian tethered satellite system (TSS) had determined that the tether experiment conducted aboard Mission STSshy75 had revealed numerous fundamental flaws in space physics and plasma theories The TSS experiment had ended with the tether breaking before reaching its full 13-mile (21-kilometer) length The scientists concluded that a number of theoretical models widely accepted for as long as 30 years were incorrect and in need of revision According to Noble Stone a NASA scientist at MSFC the teamrsquos most significant finding was that tether current flows between the satellite and the orbiter were three times greater than theoretical models had predicted Because the amount of power generated was directly proportionate to the current the harnessed energy had the potential to furnish thrust for rebooting a space station satellite or shuttle in a decaying orbit Stone suggested that tether systems might some day supplement solar arrays as sources of power for long-term space platforms78

29 May Shuttle Endeavour made a smooth sunrise landing at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida bringing to its close a fruitful 10-day research mission The Shuttle crew celebrated their record achievement of 21 hours flying in close proximity to the satellites they had released NASA planned to move Endeavour to Palmdale California for refurbishing79

31 May A team of NASA and university researchers announced the discovery of large quantities of ethane and methane gases in Comet Hyakutake the first time scientists had detected such gases in a comet The discovery led researchers to postulate that at least two basic types of comets exist If validated by further research the hypothesis would have significant ramifications for scientific theories regarding the formation of the Sun and planets Michael J Mumma the lead researcher on the project called the discovery of ethane in the comet ldquoa blinding surpriserdquo The

77 Melanie Well ldquoPepsi Coke Go into Orbitrdquo USA Today 22 May 1996 78 NASA ldquoEarly Findings from Tethered Satellite Mission Point to Revamping of Space Physics Theoriesrdquo news release 96-106 23 May 1996 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center ldquoFall Science Meeting Highlights Tether Satellite Resultsrdquo httpspacesciencespacerefcomnewhomeheadlinesast15oct96_1htm (accessed 27 October 2008) 79 Stefanie Asin ldquoWelcome Back Endeavour Shuttle Lands at Kennedy Space Center After 10-Day Missionrdquo Houston Chronicle 30 May 1996

21


team of researchers included Karen Magee-Sauer of Rowan College New Jersey and NASA scientists Neil Dello Russo David X Xie and Charles Kaminski80

JUNE 1996

4 June NASA and the Italian Space Agency released the investigative report on the failed tethered satellite system (TSS) experiment conducted during Shuttle Columbiarsquos Mission STS-75 in February 1996 The 358-page report produced by a board established to investigate the incident concluded that a breach in the layer of insulation surrounding the tether conductor possibly the result of contact with debris led to the failure According to the report the breach in insulation allowed an electrical current to jump from a copper wire in the tether to an electrical ground causing the breakage ldquothe tether failed as a result of arcing and burning of the tether leading to a tensile failure after a significant portion of the tether had burned awayrdquo The board noted that NASA scientists had already announced findings regarding tether current and voltage measurements concluding that the unexpected breakage of Columbiarsquos tethered satellite did not indicate any fundamental problem with the concept of the TSS Furthermore the board recommended that during future experiments scientists should take greater precautions to ensure that neither debris nor high-voltage arcing compromised the tetherrsquos strength81

Arianespace the commercial arm of the European Space Agency suffered a major setback in its bid to maintain control of the satellite-launching market in the face of competition from US companies Only seconds after the launch of Ariane 5 a huge rocket intended to launch satellites Arianespace had to blow up the rocket when it veered severely off course Arianespace had spent 10 years and more than US$7 billion to develop the 674-foot (205-meter) 821-ton (750000shykilogram or 750-tonne) vehicle Also lost in the explosion were satellites valued at more than US$500 million Arianespace had projected a launch reliability of 985 percent for the rocket considering failure so unlikely that the company had guaranteed a free launch to customers if the launch failed A spokesperson for Arianespace acknowledged the disappointment of the failed test but promised that the company would continue as the worldrsquos leader in launching satellites Aerospace industry analysts predicted that US companies such as Lockheed Martin would likely gain an increased foothold in the market because of the European companyrsquos misfortune82

7 June The experimental DC-XA flight vehicle completed a successful test flight flying nearly 2000 feet (610 meters) above the desert of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and landing safely NASA researchers and administrators hoped that the rocket would one day replace the Space Shuttle as the primary means of space exploration The reusable unpiloted rocket taking off and landing from a vertical position would cut significantly the costs of delivering payloads into orbit NASA announced that the vehicle had been renamed Clipper Graham in honor of

80 NASA ldquoChemical Measurements of Comet Hyakutake Suggest a New Class of Cometsrdquo news release 96-108 31 May 1996 81 NASA ldquoTethered Satellite Investigation Report Releasedrdquo news release 96-112 4 June 1996 Reuters ldquoDamaged Insulation Ruined Test in Spacerdquo 5 June 1996 Associated Press ldquoStudy Finds Metal Debris Punctured Tether Pulled by Satelliterdquo 5 June 1996 82 Kathleen Day ldquoLosing a Rocket and a Satellite Edgerdquo Washington Post 5 June 1996 Craig Whitney ldquoCostly Failure Space Launch Is Abortedrdquo New York Times 5 June 1996

22


Lieutenant General Daniel O Graham Graham who died on 31 December 1995 had served as an advisor to President Ronald Reagan and had been an early proponent for the development of reusable rockets Administrator Daniel S Goldin expressed optimism that NASA would be able to replace the Shuttle with the DC-XA flight vehicle ldquoWe are going to fly the [S]huttle safely until we can replace it But by God we are going to replace the [S]huttlerdquo83

10 June A team of astronomers announced at the American Astronomical Society convention that they had discovered ordinary vinegar in a stellar cloud 25000 light-years away from Earth The presence of an organic molecule which may have played a role in the formation of life excited scientists ldquoAcetic acid could have been one of the first steps toward the chemicals of liferdquo explained Lewis E Snyder a member of the research team that made the discovery Scientists had discovered complex molecules in space before but formic acid discovered in 1975 was the only other basic molecule detected before the discovery of the vinegar84

12 June Kennedy Space Center (KSC) scientists began the most comprehensive testing to date on how plants produce food and oxygen in space The experiment part of NASArsquos development of a Controlled Ecological Life Support System called for the analysis of 128 potato plants and 6500 wheat seeds NASA scientists planned for the study to last from one to three years NASA agricultural engineer John Sager praising NASArsquos earlier success in producing crop species for space explained the experimentrsquos significance ldquoIf we plan to live in space we must determine if this system will be as successful over longer periods of timerdquo Scientists were using KSCrsquos Biomass Production Chamber to test the crops in a space-like environment NASA had begun in 1987 to test strains of crops and plants for their ability to produce oxygen and food in

85space

13 June The Smithsonian Institution named former US Navy pilot and aviation executive Donald D Engen as Director of the National Air and Space Museum Engen succeeded Martin O Harwit who had resigned amidst criticism of an exhibition about the Enola Gay atomic bomb mission Some World War II veterans had deemed the exhibition too sympathetic to Japan and some members of Congress had faulted the National Air and Space Museum for deviating from its mission of exhibiting the history of the United Statesrsquo aeronautical achievements Smithsonian employees praised Engenrsquos appointment suggesting that he would restore the museumrsquos credibility86

19 June The US Space Walk of Fame based in Titusville Florida recognized with a two-day celebration the 20000 men and women who worked on the Gemini space program NASA had

83 NASA ldquoRevolutionary New Launch Vehicle Renamed for Space Pioneerrdquo news release 96-114 7 June 1996 Associated Press ldquoReusable Rocket Ends Flightrdquo 7 June 1996 84 John Noble Wilford ldquoWhiff of Organic Stuff Found Between Starsrdquo New York Times 11 June 1996 Associated Press ldquoVinegar Found in Far Away Spacerdquo 11 June 1996 85 NASA ldquoNASA Begins Study on Reliability of Space Life Support Systemrdquo news release 96-120 12 June 1996 86 Rowan Scarborough ldquoEngen To Head Air and Spacerdquo Washington Times 13 June 1996

23


launched 10 Gemini missions between 1965 and 1966 each spacecraft carrying two astronauts Many staff members and astronauts involved in the Gemini program went on to work on the Apollo Moon program Gemini astronauts included Neil A Armstrong Jim Lovell and Edwin E ldquoBuzzrdquo Aldrin Jr The event organizers celebrated the achievements of the Gemini missions in addition to raising funds to establish a permanent monument to the Gemini program87

20 June Shuttle Columbia lifted off from KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida embarking upon Mission STS-78 The Shuttle carried US astronauts Terrence T Henricks Kevin R Kregel Richard M Linnehan Susan J Helms and Charles E Brady Jr French astronaut Jean-Jacques Favier and Canadian astronaut Robert B Thrisk NASA planned to use an orbiting research laboratory to conduct a variety of experiments during the mission In addition to its human cargo the Shuttle transported the payload for the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences used to conduct research on musculoskeletal physiology and on the responses of living organisms to a low-gravity environment88

21 June Russian officials announced that the necessity of cutting costs at the Russian Space Agency had caused a 40-day delay in returning cosmonauts Yuri I Onufrienko and Yury V Usachev from the Mir space station to Earth Russian budget cuts had slowed the production of the Soyuz booster rockets needed to fuel a return trip for the cosmonauts Because Mir was deteriorating Russia could not leave it without a crew This was the second time that financial and technical difficulties had led Russia to delay the return of the two men The episode signaled a deepening crisis for the Russian space program the United Statesrsquo key partner in building the International Space Station (ISS)89

24 June Astronauts aboard Shuttle Columbia conducted an overnight experiment on the effects of space travel on the bodyrsquos biological clock Four astronauts slept with special caps equipped with electrodes to monitor their brain and muscle activity Astronauts in space have no exposure to the once-daily rising and setting Sun which helps trigger a regular sleep pattern on Earth In space the Sun rises and sets more than a dozen times each ldquodayrdquo NASA administrators planned the experiment because they recognized the value of restful sleep for astronauts working in space and were concerned that sleep loss would become a greater disadvantage the longer an astronaut stayed in space With the ISS on the horizon NASA researchers considered the possible effects on astronauts of record-setting stays in space a significant issue ldquoSleep disruption is something that has to be taken seriouslyrdquo said Timothy H Monk the lead researcher on the project90

26 June

87 Marilyn Meyer ldquoHistory-Making Gemini Team To Reuniterdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 8 June 1996 88 NASA ldquoLife and Microgravity Science Research Highlight Shuttle Mission STS-78rdquo news release 96-116 June 1996 NASA Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 1996 Activities (Washington DC 1997) p 103 89 USA Today ldquoRussian Cosmonautsrdquo 24 June 1996 Associated Press ldquoMoscowrdquo 21 June 1996 90 Reuters ldquoShuttle Mission Probes Body Clockrdquo 24 June 1996

24


Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) identified what they believed to be the most distant objects observed to date Researchers based at State University of New York at Stony Brook found several dozen galaxies so far away that they might have existed when the universe was less than 5 percent of its present age The team of astronomers made its calculations on the distances of the galaxies from the Earth by relying on the relationship between speed and distance in the expanding universe According to the scientific understanding of the speed-distance relationship ldquothe expansion of the universe causes the light from distant galaxies to be lsquoredshiftedrsquordquo meaning that because of the expansion of space light leaving a distant galaxy as blue arrives at the HST as red light The redshifting phenomenon allows researchers to tentatively measure the distance the light has traveled Noting that other factors such as dust also might make a galaxyrsquos light red Mark E Dickinson of the Space Telescope Science Institute categorized the study as ldquoenticingrdquo but also clarified ldquoitrsquos not a proofrdquo91

27 June NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft completed a flyby of Jupiterrsquos largest moon Ganymede passing only 519 miles (835 kilometers) above the moonrsquos surface NASA had equipped Galileo with 10 scientific instruments to gather data from the expedition The instruments began making measurements on 23 June as the probe approached Ganymede Images revealed an icy surface with bright clean ice covering part of the moon and darker dirty ice covering the rest This was the first data gathered during a collection mission planned for 1996 and 1997 in which Galileo would pass Ganymede before completing 11 orbits of Jupiter and surveying the planetrsquos other moons NASA monitored Galileorsquos progress through its Deep Space Network using control stations in California Spain and Australia Scientists and engineers at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory had built the Galileo spacecraft92

JULY 1996

2 July NASA successfully launched its Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) aboard the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite via an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base A jet flying roughly 7 miles above the California coast released the rocket that was carrying the satellite placing the TOMS-EP in a successful orbit The McMurdo Sound Tracking Station in Antarctica acquired the satellite almost immediately and determined that the spacecraft was functioning properly After it reached a circular orbit the TOMS-EP was ready to conduct its scientific mission93

Paul F Holloway Director of Langley Research Center (LARC) in Hampton Virginia announced his retirement Holloway had served at LARC for his entire aerospace career beginning in 1960 He became the Centerrsquos Director in 1991 overseeing 4500 employees and a budget of more than US$600 million During his tenure Holloway published 42 technical articles in the fields of hypersonic aerodynamics boundary layer transition and flow separation

91 Associated Press ldquoHubble Scope Peers into Universersquos Past with Aid of Starlightrdquo 27 June 1996 NASA ldquoFindings from Hubble Deep Field Home in on Distant Galaxiesrdquo news release 96-123 26 June 199692 NASA ldquoGalileo Readies for Close Flyby of Jupiterrsquos Biggest Moonrdquo news release 96-122 June 1996 93 NASA ldquoPegasusTOMS Launch Successful from Vandenberg AFBrdquo news release 2 July 1996 Associated Press ldquoBRFmdashSatellite Launchrdquo 2 July 1996

25


analysis of entry flight mechanics and Earth orbital and planetary space missions NASA awarded Holloway its Outstanding Leadership Medal Exceptional Service Medal Distinguished Service Medal and Equal Employment Opportunity Medal Holloway also received the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Service and two Senior Executive Service Distinguished Presidential Rank Awards NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin summarized Hollowayrsquos contributions to NASA saying that his ldquocareer spans almost the entire history of the Space Age and his many achievements at Langley are a tribute to his talent his professionalism and his dedication to the importance of NASA aeronautical programsrdquo94

Lockheed Martin won the contract to design and build the X-33 test vehicle a scaled-down model of the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) that NASA planned as an eventual replacement for the Space Shuttle NASA set a budget of US$941 million for the project In announcing the new contract Administrator Daniel S Goldin expressed NASArsquos high hopes for the project ldquoWe want to develop technologies that will allow industry to build a vehicle that takes days not months to turnaround dozens not thousands of people to operate reliability ten times better than anything flying today and launch costs that are a tenth of what they are now Our goal is a reusable launch vehicle that will cut the cost of sending a pound of payload to orbit from [US]$10000 to [US]$1000rdquo Lockheed planned to invest US$220 million in the RLV project The X-33 plan built upon the successful engineering of the Clipper Graham (DC-XA) launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico The agreement between NASA and Lockheed Martin split the risk between government and industry Although NASA passed over Rockwell International for the contract Rockwell designed the vehiclersquos engine95

4 July Reuters News Service published an internal NASA memorandum written by an independent safety commission the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel cautioning NASA against cutting the budget for the Shuttle program too quickly According to the panelrsquos analysis NASArsquos attempts to reduce costs by conducting fewer Shuttle safety inspections and by transferring responsibility for day-to-day operations of the Shuttle program to United Space Alliance had demoralized NASArsquos workforce at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) The memo made clear the opinion of the safety inspectors ldquoOverall it was the clear consensus of the team that a cooling off period is absolutely necessary if KSC operations are to continue safely without this hiatus the safety risk is likely unacceptablerdquo96

5 July In a study released in the journal Science Charles P Sonett detailed the results of his research measuring changes in the motion of Earth Sonett reported that tidal forces from the gravitational force of the Moon had caused the Earthrsquos rotation to slow gradually over a period of millions of years About 900 million years ago according to Sonett the length of the Earthrsquos day was only

94 NASA ldquoNASA Langley Director Paul F Holloway To Step Downrdquo news release 96-127 2 July 1996 95 NASA ldquoLockheed Martin Selected To Build X-33rdquo news release 96-128 2 July 1996 Jeff Cole ldquoLockheed Wins $1 Billion Pact for the Shuttlerdquo Wall Street Journal 3 July 1996 Curt Suplee and Steven Pearlstein ldquoLockheed Martin Gets Spacecraft Projectrdquo Washington Post 3 July 1996 96 Reuters ldquoWarning Light for NASArsquos Shuttle ProgrammdashMemordquo 4 July 1996

26


about 18 hours The gravitational pull of the Moon Sonett explained ldquoacts like a brake on the Earthrdquo97

7 July Shuttle Columbia landed at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida ending the longest Space Shuttle mission ever The mission lasting nearly 17 days set a new space endurance record for the crew The astronauts had bested their previous record by nearly 7 hours Columbia had carried into space a torch for the 1996 Olympic relay and upon landing two members of the crew joined the Olympic torch relay team in a special ceremony The astronauts had overcome several small malfunctions to conduct the successful mission and land the Shuttle on time Less than 2 hours before the Shuttlersquos scheduled arrival the crew had discovered a clogged cooling line but the astronauts were able to flush ice from the system to clear the line In addition the mission brought to light a potential ongoing problem for Columbia In studying the launch NASA officials had observed gas and flames issuing from the rocket boosters probably through the O-ring joints used to connect the boosterrsquos fuel segments Although Columbiarsquos crew was not in danger NASA officials decided that the Shuttle would not launch again until scientists had determined how well the new water-based adhesive would function under extreme heat NASA had discontinued the adhesive used previously on the rocket boosters because the adhesive was an ozone-depleting agent98

9 July NASA announced the recipients of the 1996 Software of the Year Award honoring those individuals who had created software enhancing NASArsquos mission and the US aerospace industry Linked Windows Interactive Data System developed by NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Tetrahedral Unstructured Software System developed by LARC won the 1996 awards The former system allowed scientists to examine geophysical and climatological data gathered from satellites and the latter aided researchers in studying problems with ldquospacecraft rotorcraft automotive turbomachinery and medical analysis and designrdquo99

14 July NASA announced the six-week delay of astronaut Shannon W Lucidrsquos return from her outpost aboard the Mir space station NASA made the schedule change because of concerns about the reliability of the joint sealant used on the Shuttlersquos reusable rocket boosters during the June launch of Columbia NASA planned to replace the booster before launching Atlantis scheduled to retrieve Lucid The reusable rocket boosters packed with fuel launch the Shuttle After pushing the Shuttle into space the boosters fall off and descend attached to parachutes into the ocean Upon retrieving the rocket boosters engineers disassemble them into smaller pieces repack them with fuel and rebuild them for a new Shuttle launch sealing each of the rocketrsquos three field joints with an O-ring NASA sought to fortify these joints further and the adhesive used to secure them before launching another Shuttle mission Space Shuttle Program Manager

97 C P Sonett et al ldquoLate Proterozoic and Paleozoic Tides Retreat of the Moon and Rotation of the Earthrdquo Science 273 no 5271 (5 July 1996) 100minus104 Associated Press ldquoAstrodynamics A Brake on the Earthrsquos Spinrdquo 8 July 1996 98 William Harwood ldquoRecord Shuttle Flight Ends Problem May Delay Next Launchrdquo Washington Post 8 July 1996 Associated Press ldquoColumbia Ends 17-Day Missionrdquo 8 July 1996 99 NASA ldquoNASA Announces 1996 Software of the Year Award Recipientsrdquo news release 9 July 1996

27


Thomas W Holloway stated that NASA remained confident in the overall design of the rocket booster and in the joint but wanted to take no avoidable risks100

15 July Astronaut Shannon W Lucid established a new American record for the longest space mission Lucid conducted a news conference from the Mir space station marking her record of 115 days and 44 minutes which eclipsed the record of her predecessor aboard Mir Norman E Thagard With the changed date for the rendezvous between Shuttle Atlantis and Mir NASA predicted that Lucid would also break the record number of 170 days spent by a woman in space101

NASA named the crew members for Mission STS-84 the sixth scheduled docking mission between the Space Shuttle and Russiarsquos Mir space station NASA selected Charles J Precourt as Mission Commander and Eileen M Collins as Shuttle Pilot with Mission Specialists Edward T Lu and Carlos I Noriega and European Space Agency astronaut Jean-Franccedilois Clervoy rounding out the crew The scheduled Atlantis mission also included Mission Specialist C Michael Foale who planned to stay on Mir for four months102

18 July NASA released new images of Io one of Jupiterrsquos moons obtained by the Galileo spacecraft Michael J S Belton of the National Optical Astronomical Observatories pointed out that radical changes had occurred on the moon during the 17 years between Galileo and the first observation of Io via the Voyager spacecraft in 1979 According to Belton active volcanoes had altered the color of the moonrsquos surface forming deposits of sulfur and sulfur dioxide that painted the surface white103

20 July NASA commemorated the 20th anniversary of Viking 1rsquos landing on Mars the first time that a spacecraft had successfully descended to the surface of the planet NASA marked the occasion with an address from Administrator Daniel S Goldin and the celebration of Mars Day at the Smithsonian Institutionrsquos National Air and Space Museum Viking 1 had searched for life on Mars but at the end of its quest scientists had found no evidence of life on Mars As it celebrated its accomplishments NASA continued its efforts to learn more about Mars throughout its 20th anniversary year with the development of Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder104

22 July While constructing a piping trench two surveyors at NASArsquos LARC located the fossil remains of a 35 million-year-old 30-foot (9-meter) baleen whale The workers found the whalersquos skull tympanic bulla vertebrae and rib fragments Langley loaned the remains to the nearby College of William and Mary Gerald H Johnson a geologist at the College of William and Mary suggested that the discovery provided a clue to the history of the Langley site indicating that the

100 William J Broad ldquoAstronautrsquos Ride Home Is Delayed for 6 Weeksrdquo New York Times 13 July 1996 101 NASA ldquoShannon Lucid Breaks a Record The 20th Anniversary of the Viking Mission to Marsrdquo video advisory V96-84 15 July 1996 Associated Press ldquoWith One Record Down Shersquos Still Uprdquo 16 July 1996 102 NASA ldquoCrew Named to Sixth ShuttlendashMir Docking Missionrdquo news release 96-139 15 July 1996 103 NASA ldquoGalileo Finds Big Changes on Jupiterrsquos Volcanic Moon Iordquo news release 96-143 18 July 1996 104 NASA ldquoActivities Planned To Commemorate 20th Anniversary of First Mars Landingrdquo news release 96-141 15 July 1996

28


Atlantic shoreline probably used to be located 30minus40 miles (48minus64 kilometers) west of its present location105

24 July As Congress prepared to vote on NASArsquos budget Thomas J Shulz of the US General Accounting Office (GAO) testified before a US Senate committee that NASA would likely exceed its projected budget for constructing the International Space Station (ISS) and making it operational NASA refuted the claim GAOrsquos report suggested that NASA had made unrealistic cost estimates and that its system to monitor costs and schedule was inadequate The report also outlined GAOrsquos concerns about Russiarsquos continued commitment to the ISS endeavor Shulz testified that ldquoin a worst-case situation these issues could threaten the future of the program especially if they result in significantly higher cost estimates and substantial schedule delaysrdquo NASArsquos spokesperson on the issue Wilbur C Trafton defended NASArsquos projected budget and its relationship with Russia Trafton pointed out that Vice President Albert A Gore Jr and NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin had procured a new agreement during a July meeting in Russia indicating the solidity of the partnership between the United States and Russia GAOrsquos critique occurred against the backdrop of the continuing quest during the mid-1990s to make NASA more cost effective106

31 July NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced the appointment of Jeremiah F Creedon as Director of LARC Creedon succeeded Paul F Holloway who had served for 36 years at LARC With this appointment Creedon moved up from his position as LARCrsquos Director of the Airframe Systems Program Office to return to the research center where he had begun his engineering career 33 years earlier During his career at NASA Creedon had received the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive in the Senior Executive Service NASArsquos Outstanding Leadership Medal and the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive in Senior Executive Service107

AUGUST 1996

1 August The Boeing Company announced that it had purchased most of the aerospace and defense holdings of its competitor Rockwell International Corporation The US$3 billion deal restructured the two companies in drastically different ways permitting Boeing to increase significantly its potential to win government aerospace contracts while Rockwell International turned its attention to the lucrative commercial market in automation Whereas Boeing solidified its established dominance in the commercial jetliner construction business Rockwell left behind its signature industry⎯the company had been nearly synonymous with NASArsquos piloted space program However in the face of dwindling government contracts Rockwell had been concentrating for years on developing its commercial product lines Although the merger was not a surprise the sale of the company responsible for engineering the Apollo spacecraft and the B-1

105 NASA ldquoAncient Whale Surfaces at NASA Langleyrdquo news release 96-145 22 July 1996 106 William E Clayton Jr ldquoGAO Criticizes NASArsquos Estimate on Cost of Building Space Stationrdquo Houston Chronicle 25 July 1996 Larry Wheeler ldquoReport NASA Budget Much Too Rosyrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 25 July 1996 107 NASA ldquoDr Jeremiah Creedon Named Director Langley Research Centerrdquo news release 96-152 31 July 1996

29


bombers marked the end of an era in the aerospace industry The Wall Street Journal estimated that Boeingrsquos share of aerospace and defense revenues would increase to US$8minus9 billion annually108

NASA scientist Jay R Hermon published an article in Geophysical Research Letters claiming that he had used NASArsquos Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer spacecraft to demonstrate the dramatic increase between 1979 and 1992 of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching the Earthrsquos surface The article ldquoUV-B Increases (1979minus1992) from Decreases in Total Ozonerdquo explained that the ozone necessary to protect the Earth from the Sunrsquos harmful UV rays was declining Herman found that annual UV-B exposure had increased 68 percent per decade at 55ordm north latitude and 99 percent per decade at 55ordm south latitude Both latitudes had significant population centers that emitted harmful emissions destructive to the ozone layer109

2 August NASA and the US Air Force unveiled to the public an ldquointelligentrdquo aircraft using a computerized system to ldquolearn as it fliesrdquo Researchers had engineered the hypersonic aircraft to take inventory of flight maneuvers performed while operating under remote control eventually using its acquired knowledge to develop the capability to fly itself According to the flight researchers the aircraftrsquos control system would create a continually altering set of ldquocontrol lawsrdquo to optimize flight performance After the aircraft had perfected its system it could assist pilots in performing such tasks as landing partially damaged planes The intelligent aircraft could also enable flight at speeds and altitudes that human pilots could hardly ever achieve while still maintaining adequate control of an aircraft110

5 August NASA convened a five-member investigation board to determine the cause of the postlanding explosion of the Clipper Graham (DC-XA) rocket on 31 July 1996 The Clipper Graham had successfully flown a 2-minute 20-second flight profile but had tipped over and caught fire after landing when one of its four landing gears failed to deploy The DC-XA had tested successfully three times before the explosion destroyed it Former astronaut Vance Brand chaired the panel bringing together representatives from NASArsquos Dryden Flight Research Center Marshall Space Flight Center Langley Research Center and Kennedy Space Center Researchers hoped the investigation would illuminate any flaws in the Clipper Grahamrsquos design allowing engineers to make necessary adjustments in future prototypes111

7 August

108 The Boeing Company ldquoBoeing To Acquire Rockwell Aerospace and Defense Unitsrdquo news release 1 August 1996 NASA ldquoNASA Comment on Boeing Corporation Acquisition of Rockwell Aerospace and Defense Businessesrdquo news release N96-51 1 August 1996 Associated Press ldquoBoeing To Buy Rockwell Internationalrsquos Aerospace Holdingsrdquo 1 August 1996 James F Peltz ldquoRockwell To Sell Space and Defense Divisions to Boeingrdquo Los Angeles Times 2 August 1996 Jeff Cole and Steven Lipin ldquoBoeing Deal Will Strengthen Companyrdquo Wall Street Journal 2 August 1996 109 J R Herman et al ldquoUV-B Increases (1979minus1992) from Decreases in Total Ozonerdquo Geophysical Research Letters 23 no 16 (1996) 2117minus2120 NASA ldquoSurface Ultraviolet Radiation Levels Have Increased from 1979 to 1992rdquo news release 96-153 1 August 1996 110 NASA ldquoIntelligent Test Aircraft Unveiled in Wisconsin Todayrdquo news release 96-154 2 August 1996 111 NASA ldquoClipper Graham Incident Investigation Board Convenesrdquo news release 96-158 5 August 1996

30


NASA reported that a team of scientists from Johnson Space Center and Stanford University had found evidence that ldquostrongly suggestedrdquo that primitive life existed on the planet Mars During a two-year study the researchers discovered what they believed to be organic molecules of Martian origin on a potato-sized meteorite which members of the National Science Foundationrsquos Antarctica Meteorite Program had found in 1984 Scientists estimated that the meteorite was about 45 billion years old According to the teamrsquos report published in Science magazine the remnants on the meteorite shared several mineral characteristics indicating biological activity possibly even containing microscopic fossils of primitive bacteria-like organisms The minute scale of the evidence required the careful research of the team of specialists in the fields of microbiology mineralogy and chemistry The largest of the possible fossils measured about 1100th the diameter of a human hair Only with recently developed technological instruments including a dual-laser mass spectrometer were the scientists able to make any substantial observations112 The announcement generated immediate excitement in the scientific community and in the mass media although some scientists responded with a multitude of critical questions The researchers carefully qualified their report stating ldquoIt is very difficult to prove life existed 36 billion years ago on Earth let alone on Marsrdquo113 NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin pledged to make samples of the meteorite available to scientists throughout the world to encourage a full scientific investigation114

13 August NASA released images from its Galileo spacecraft indicating that water might have existed on Jupiterrsquos moon Europa in the past or might still exist there According to scientists studying the images Europa may have ldquowarm icerdquo on its surface Finding such ice would help scientists determine whether Europarsquos climate could support life ldquoWhat we are really looking for is niches that could support liferdquo Ronald Greeley a Galileo team scientist clarified at a press briefing releasing the images At first glance the pictures shot from a distance of about 95700 miles (154000 kilometers) seemed to depict a series of white stripes stretched across Europarsquos landscape However the stripes were actually ice glaciers long of interest to scientists Researchers had long suspected that Europa might be one of the places in the universe possessing water and therefore an environment that could support life NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin expressed ldquoskeptical optimismrdquo at the Europa findings and urged the scientific community to examine the pictures further in a tempered reaction similar to his stance regarding the discovery one week earlier of microbiological evidence of life on Mars115

17 August

112 David S McKay et al ldquoSearch for Past Life on Mars Possible Relic Biogenic Activity in Martian Meteorite ALH84001rdquo Science 273 no 5277 (16 August 1996) 924minus930 NASA ldquoMeteorite Yields Evidence of Primitive Life on Early Marsrdquo news release 96-160 7 August 1996 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNASA Releases Images of Mars Life Evidencerdquo Washington Post 8 August 1996 See also Kathy Sawyer The Rock from Mars A Detective Story on Two Planets (New York Random House 2006) 113 Malcolm W Browne ldquoPlanetary Experts Say Mars Life Is Still Speculativerdquo New York Times 8 August 1996 Joyce Price ldquoClinton Trumpets NASA lsquoTriumphrsquo Scientists Skepticalrdquo Washington Times 8 August 1996 114 McKay et al ldquoSearch for Past Life on Marsrdquo 924ndash930 NASA ldquoMeteorite Yields Evidencerdquo Sawyer ldquoNASA Releases Imagesrdquo 115 NASA ldquoStatement by Administrator Daniel S Goldin on the Release of New Galileo Spacecraft Images of Europardquo news release 96-166 13 August 1996 Reuters ldquoGalileo Hints at Water on Europardquo 14 August 1996 NASA ldquoJupiterrsquos Europa Harbors Possible lsquoWarm Icersquo or Liquid Waterrdquo news release 96-164 13 August 1996 Kathy Sawyer ldquoJupiter Moon May Contain Ice Floes Seardquo Washington Post 14 August 1996

31


The Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-24 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying cosmonauts Valery G Korzun and Alexander Y Kaleri and the first female French astronaut Claudie Andreacute-Deshays The crew of Soyuz planned to resupply Mirrsquos long-term

116crew

19 August The Russian Soyuz TM-24 which launched on 17 August arrived at Mir carrying Francersquos first female astronaut Claudie Andreacute-Deshays Andreacute-Deshays a rheumatologist joined Russian cosmonauts Valery G Korzun and Alexander Y Kaleri on the flight from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan She planned to study the effects of weightlessness on the human body during her stay aboard Mir The crew of Soyuz joined Shannon W Lucid the American astronaut who had been aboard the Russian space station since March Reporting the safe arrival of Andreacute-Deshays at Mir the head of Francersquos space program also announced that France would likely end its short-term space missions conducted aboard Russian vehicles France intended to focus on longer less frequent missions facilitating more detailed research programs The change in policy went into effect immediately with France canceling two French-Russian missions planned for 1998 and 1999117

21 August NASA launched its Fast Auroral Snapshot (FAST) Explorer from a test range near Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Engineers had designed the FAST vehicle to travel about 1500 miles (2400 kilometers) above Earth measuring energetic particles and magnetic and electric fields at high altitudes where auroras form to explore the ldquophysical processes that produce aurora borealis and aurora australisrdquo NASArsquos Small Explorer Project tasked with providing frequent and low-cost research missions for astrophysics investigations had carried out the FAST mission as the second in a series of five missions118

23 August NASArsquos analysts at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) who had investigated the causes of the Challenger explosion joined the probe into the crash of TWA flight 800 which exploded near Long Island New York on 17 July 1996 NASA offered the services of its MSFC investigative team to analyze why the center fuel tank of the Boeing 747 had exploded Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board led the investigation with support from a variety of other agencies including NASA the US Navy and the FBI119

27 August

116 Spacewarn Bulletin no 514 25 August 1996 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx514html (accessed 29 July 2008) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) ldquoRussian Spaceship Heads for Space Stationrdquo 18 August 1996 117 Craig Covault and Pierre Sparaco ldquoFrench Astronaut Joins RussianUS Mir Crewrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 145 no 9 (26 August 1996) 69 Associated Press ldquoRussian Spaceship Docks with Orbiting Stationrdquo 19 August 1996 Associated Press ldquoFifth Joint French-Russian Mission May Be Last Official Saysrdquo 19 August 1996 118 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ldquoFAST Status Report 1 Spacecraft Successfully Launchedrdquo news release 21 August 1996 Bruce Smith ldquoFast Launched Successfullyrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 145 no 9 (26 August 1996) 71 119 Robert Davis ldquoChallenger Experts Aid in TWA Proberdquo USA Today 23 August 1996 Eric Malnic ldquoExperts at NASA Join Probe of TWA Crashrdquo Los Angeles Times 23 August 1996

32


The Galileo spacecraft lost some of its collected data when a problem with one of its computer processors caused a shutdown of nonessential systems Project Manager William J OrsquoNeil said that much of the lost data was of little consequence to researchers but that data from Galileorsquos continuous study of Jupiterrsquos magnetic field had suffered a significant loss creating an information gap of about one week The episode which occurred in the midst of NASArsquos string of impressive research achievements highlighted the difficulty of directing a data-gathering probe thousands of miles from Earthrsquos surface120

28 August NASA and Orbital Sciences Corporation signed a contract which was not a cooperative agreement whereby Orbital Sciences would build a new X-34 reusable launch vehicle smaller than that originally planned NASA had first made public the original X-34 program in 1994 NASA had intended the program also known as the Reusable Small Booster Program to stimulate the development of a reusable commercial launch vehicle to place smaller payloads in low orbit In addition NASA planned for the X-34 program to demonstrate that an industry-led partnership between NASA and the aerospace industry could accomplish this objective within 30 to 36 months and within a fixed government budget On 12 January 1995 NASA released a final cooperative agreement notice for the X-34 program and in March 1995 NASA selected Orbital Sciences Corporation as its industry partner Over the next eight months as design of the X-34 progressed problems arose over the selection of an appropriate rocket engine resulting in NASArsquos temporarily shutting down the program on 2 November 1995 In January 1996 Orbital Sciences Corporation suggested that NASA explore the potential of a smaller vehicle Orbital Sciences then issued stop-work orders to all its X-34 subcontractors effectively ending the program Because NASA wanted to use remaining federal dollars to develop a smaller vehicle capable of demonstrating various reusable launch technologies it rebid the contract in March 1996 On 10 June 1996 NASA selected Orbital Sciences to build the new X-34121

SEPTEMBER 1996

1 September More than 200 experts met in Sioux Falls South Dakota to plan the design and implementation of a new fleet of radar satellites The group emphasized the recent geological discoveries made with data from radar satellites especially from those satellites tracking the movements and shifts in Earthrsquos plates that have been impossible to track until recently The US Geological Survey and NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory sponsored the event Geophysicist Howard A Zebker described the satellites as a ldquogreat leap forward Itrsquos like suddenly having [x]-rays to see inside a bodyrdquo122

4 September

120 Kathy Sawyer ldquoSpacecraft in Orbit Around Jupiter Loses Datardquo Washington Post 27 August 1996 Associated Press ldquoComputer Error on Spacecraft Exploring Jupiterrdquo 28 August 1996 See also Michael Meltzer Mission to Jupiter A History of the Galileo Project (Washington DC NASA 2007) 121 NASA History Division ldquoX-33 History Project Fact Sheet 7 The Policy Origins of the X-33 Part VII The X34rdquo March 25 2000 httpwwwhqnasagovpaoHistoryx-33facts_7htm 122 William J Broad ldquoSatellite Radar Unveils Subtle Slow Wrinkling of the Planetrsquos Surfacerdquo New York Times 3 September 1996

33

shy


Hurricane Fran delayed the launch of Shuttle Atlantis NASA managers decided to move the Shuttle off the launchpad when it became clear that the hurricanersquos path lay through the southeast region of the United States Because of the slow rollback of the vehicle from the launchpad to the assembly building managers determined that they would not be able to meet the scheduled 14 September departure date123

5 September Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope identified 18 star clusters that they believed to be embryonic galaxies According to the New York Times because the clusters resided 11 billion light-years from Earth essentially the scientists had glimpsed back in time The observations supported a theory that galaxies begin with stars grouping together The astronomers from Arizona State University and the University of Alabama called the discovery ldquothe first page in an otherwise blank bookrdquo124

NASA named astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria to replace astronaut Wendy B Lawrence as NASArsquos Director of Operations at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City Russia The job of the director was to coordinate the training of US astronauts headed for the Mir space station and to act as liaison between NASA and the Russian Space Agency125

6 September NASA awarded grants to fund 19 studies that researchers had proposed in response to a NASA research announcement NASA awarded a total of US$29 million for the studies which focused on innovative mission concepts in space physics NASA expected most of the studies to last one or two years and to cost about US$100000 each year NASA planned to use the studies in forming its space science strategic plan and in considering future missions126

7 September Because of delays in launching Shuttle Atlantis astronaut Shannon W Lucid broke Elena V Kondakovarsquos record for longest single flight in space by a woman NASA engineers had delayed the launch because they suspected that the O-rings on the solid rocket boosters were faulty and wanted to replace them During Lucidrsquos stay in space aboard Mir she and the two Russian cosmonauts had conducted a variety of scientific experiments127

11 September NASA announced that engineers from NASA and Lockheed Martin had completed successful tests on a prototype lightweight external fuel tank for the Shuttle The tests measured the tankrsquos strength and reliability under conditions exceeding recommended flight certification NASArsquos External Tank Project Manager Parker V Counts reported that the tests had demonstrated that the unique composition of the very lightweight tanks did not reduce their strength NASA had

123 NASA ldquoAtlantis Moved to VAB STS-79 Delayedrdquo launch advisory 96-181 4 September 1996 124 Lee Bowman ldquoPossible View of Galaxies Being Bornrdquo Washington Times 5 September 1996 John Noble Wilford ldquoLooking Back 11 Billion Light-Years a Glimpse at Galaxy Birthrdquo New York Times 5 September 1996 125 NASA ldquoLopez-Alegria To Replace Lawrence as NASA Manager to Russiardquo news release 96-182 5 September 1996 126 NASA ldquoNASA Selects 19 Innovative Space Physics Mission Conceptsrdquo news release 96-184 6 September 1996 127 NASA ldquoLucid To Break Record Latest Images of Hurricane Franrdquo video advisory V96-111 6 September 1996

34


awarded Lockheed Martin the contract to produce the lighter tanks to enable the Shuttle to carry cargo to the high inclination orbit where the International Space Station (ISS) would reside To build the tanks NASA had used aluminum lithium a material both lighter and stronger than the metal alloy used in previous tank construction NASA had designed the tanks to weigh 7500 pounds (3400 kilograms) less than the models used on earlier Shuttles128

12 September Scientists at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) received the first images from the United Statesrsquo Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) as the instrument orbited aboard the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) GSFC scientists noted the superior quality of the initial images ADEOS continued a long line of satellites launched to aid scientists in observing total levels of ozone and volcanic sulfur dioxide Because of data obtained from the TOMS instruments deployed by NASA millions of Americans became aware of the ozone hole and began to use ozone as a household word The latest TOMS instrument joined a series of instruments aboard ADEOS including the Improved Limb Atmospheric Sounder the Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases and the Retroreflector in Space129

13 September In Marshall Space Flight Centerrsquos (MSFCrsquos) underwater weightless simulator NASA began testing a remotely controlled robot created by a team of researchers from the University of Maryland Team leaders nicknamed the robot Ranger predicting that it would one day assist astronauts aboard the Shuttle or the ISS Project Manager Joseph Parrish pointed out that astronauts often use valuable spacewalk time completing mundane tasks such as collecting tools establishing footholds and cleaning up Scientists hoped Ranger could perform such tasks under the command of an operator located in space or even that of an operator at NASArsquos command center The 8-foot-long (24-meter-long) 1700-pound (770-kilogram) robot used gas thrusters robotic arms lights and cameras The academic project filled a void in experimental robot design a program affected by NASArsquos budget cuts Allowing university researchers and professors to design and test the robot cost NASA about US$8 million far less than NASA would pay for similar projects contracted through an aerospace firm During the tests the University of Marylandrsquos team operated Ranger remotely from its campus hundreds of miles away from MSFCrsquos facility in Huntsville Alabama130

16 September Shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida Hurricane Fran had delayed the launch and the subsequent ShuttlendashMir rendezvous The mission was the fourth Mir docking mission for a US Space Shuttle William F Readdy commanded the six-astronaut crew aboard Atlantis including Pilot Terrence W Wilcutt and Mission Specialists Jay Apt Thomas D Akers Carl E Walz and John E Blaha During Mission STS-79 the Shuttle crew planned to retrieve astronaut Shannon W Lucid from Mir leaving astronaut John Blaha as her replacement The Shuttle carried 4600 pounds (2090 kilograms) of supplies to Mir

128 NASA ldquoShuttle Super Lightweight Fuel Tank Completes Testsrdquo news release 96-186 11 September 1996 129 NASA ldquoFirst Global Image of Total Atmospheric Ozone Obtained from NASA Instrument Aboard Japanese Satelliterdquo news release 96-188 16 September 1996 130 Martin Burkey ldquoRanger Gets a Workoutrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 13 September 1996

35


Mission STS-79 the 17th flight of Shuttle Atlantis entailed the largest transfer of supplies ever made to Mir131

19 September The White House released a new national space policy the first such directive since the Cold War White House policy advisors constructed the plan over an 18-month period amidst government-wide calls for tightening NASArsquos budget The policy statement called for controlling costs by using private-sector industry to build develop and operate selected space technologies The directive also advocated drawing together civilian and military space activities and forging closer ties with foreign countries conducting space research The Clinton administration reversed several decisions of President George H W Bush most noticeably the former Presidentrsquos call to land an astronaut on Mars Space experts called the initiative too costly and dangerous Instead the Clinton plan relied on robots to explore Mars and targeted the ISS as the hub of human-based space exploration as well as enshrining the ldquofaster better cheaperrdquo mantra of NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin Congress planned to hold a funding summit in the months following the release of the policy to bring together key political military and science officials132

26 September Astronaut Shannon W Lucid returned to Earth after her record-setting space sojourn on Russiarsquos Mir space station Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida delivering Lucid home to a celebration honoring her 188 days spent in space most of it aboard Mir During her mission Lucid had traveled 75 million miles (121 million kilometers) the equivalent of 157 trips to the Moon and back Doctors stood by to greet the Shuttle expecting Lucid to experience some muscle weakness as her body re-accustomed itself to the effects of gravity President William J Clinton called to congratulate Lucid saying ldquoWe are all so proud of yourdquo133

28 September During a top-level meeting between officials of the United States and Russia NASA made public a shift in its policy announcing that US astronauts would not always have command aboard the ISS In a compromise meant to encourage Russia to build its portion of the station NASA conceded that astronauts from other countries would have the opportunity to command the ISS for significant periods134

30 September

131 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Mission STS-79mdashPress Kitrdquo news release 96-179 September 1996 William Harwood ldquoShuttle Arrives for Astronautrsquos Long-Awaited Pickuprdquo Washington Post 19 September 1996 132 Kathy Sawyer ldquoWhite House Releasing New National Space Policyrdquo Washington Post 19 September 1996 Associated Press ldquoSpace Policyrdquo 19 September 1996 The White House National Science and Technology Council ldquoFact Sheet National Space Policyrdquo 19 September 1996 httphistorynasagovappf2pdf 133 Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttlerdquo 26 September 1996 Associated Press ldquoRemarks by President Clinton in Conversation with Astronaut Lucidrdquo 26 September 1996 United Press International ldquoLucidrsquos Six-Month Mission Endsrdquo 26 September 1996 134 Knight-Ridder News Service ldquoCommand of Space Station Will Be Shared by Other Nationsrdquo 28 September 1996

36


Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) at Edwards Air Force Base in California commemorated its 50th anniversary with a celebration called Discovery Through Flight Research The Center got its start when five aeronautical engineers from Langley Research Center arrived to explore flight beyond the speed of sound in preparation for the X-1 tests featuring pilot Charles E ldquoChuckrdquo Yeager at the controls Researchers at DFRC contributed to a wide variety of aeronautical achievements including breaking the sound barrier and helping launch the Space Shuttle program At the age of 50 DFRC employed 900 government and civilian contractor employees135

With the push of a button at GSFC NASA discontinued use of the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite which had been in orbit since 1978 When NASA sent a signal to the satellite to empty its fuel the satellite effectively went to sleep spinning off into space Although NASA had originally designed the satellite to spend only three years in space scientists continued to use it to gather data far beyond the spacecraftrsquos anticipated lifespan NASA ended control of the satellite to save between US$1 and US$2 million annually in operating costs GSFC had operated the satellite as part of a three-way agreement with the European Space Agency and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council of the United Kingdom More than 2000 researchers from around the world had made observations from the satellite research that had directly led to the publication of more than 3200 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals136

OCTOBER 1996

1 October United Space Alliance (USA) a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corporation and Rockwell International took over daily operations of NASArsquos Space Shuttle fleet NASA had previously used private contractors NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin marked the occasion as ldquothe first day of a new space program in Americardquo Financial experts forecast that the government-private industry pact might be worth as much as US$12 billion by the end of its 10-year venture According to the agreement USA shouldered the responsibility for the 12 Shuttle-related contracts carried out at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida and Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston Texas NASA stated that USA might take over additional tasks in the future NASA had decided to consolidate the Shuttle operations with USA to improve cost efficiency a vital step in light of congressional budget cuts Kent Black the CEO of USA predicted that the move would save NASA as much as 20 percent of its operating budget for the Shuttle in the first year of the contract alone Even with the turnover NASA maintained complete control over planning Shuttle missions selecting astronauts and approving launches of the Shuttle NASA planned to take on an oversight role similar to that of the Federal Aviation Administration rewarding USA with bonuses for savings and imposing monetary penalties if the company failed to achieve ldquovery goodrdquo safety ratings137

135 Antelope Valley Press (Palmdale CA) ldquoDryden Marks Half-Century of Achievementsrdquo 25 September 1996 136 Associated Press ldquoAncient Spacecraftrdquo 1 October 1996 137 Associated Press ldquoNASA Turns Shuttle Operations Over to Private Industryrdquo 30 Sept 1996 Reuters ldquoNASA Signs $7 Billion Shuttle Pactrdquo 30 September 1996 United Press International ldquoNASA signs $12 Billion Shuttle Pactrdquo 1 October 1996

37


NASA introduced a new technology with the potential to make much smaller and more efficient electronic devices the Thin-Layer Composite-Unimorph Piezoelectric Driver and Sensor (THUNDER) Researchers at Langley Research Center (LARC) recognized the potential of piezoelectric material because of its well-known capability to generate movement when subjected to an electric current NASA hoped that the THUNDER technology would improve devices in ldquoelectronics optics jitter (irregular motion) suppression noise cancellation pumps valves and a variety of other fieldsrdquo LARCrsquos interdisciplinary team had improved upon already available commercial-grade piezoelectric material producing a more durable cheaper and more effective product RampD Magazine announced that it would honor THUNDER as one of its top 100 most technologically significant new products of the year Six companies signed agreements with NASA to develop THUNDER and a dozen other companies expressed interest in negotiating similar pacts138

3 October China announced it would participate in an international collaborative space research project for the first time in its history Chinese scientists planned to assist their colleagues from Russia and the United States in the future Discovery mission Although China had no plans to send an astronaut on the Shuttle Chinese aerospace engineers volunteered to construct the sophisticated magnets needed to build a magnetic spectrometer The project was the first time the usually secretive Chinese space science program had opened itself to outside scrutiny139

NASA discovered the second of two misplaced hand tools left inside the propulsion system of the recently landed Shuttle Atlantis Although the Shuttle had experienced no problems during its 10-day flight NASA formed an investigative panel to determine who had left the tools inside the Shuttlersquos engine compartment after completing work Inspectors had discovered the first missing tool inside the electronic control compartment of the Shuttlersquos reusable rocket booster when they retrieved the booster from the Atlantic Ocean shortly after the launch Workers discovered the second tool during a routine postflight inspection of Atlantisrsquos rocket engine compartment Although the tools likely posed no threat to the safety of the Shuttle crew a NASA representative said that for safety reasons NASA intended to find out how workers had made the error and if possible to identify the Shuttle contractor responsible140

8 October President William J Clinton signed legislation ending funding for the federal helium reserve The United States through the Bureau of Mines had bought and stockpiled helium since the 1960s⎯expending more than US$250 million Experts estimated that the US governmentrsquos helium reserve could supply the world for more than 10 years and the federal government for 80 The legislation to end the reserve spearheaded by US Representative Christopher Cox (R-CA) closed down the helium facility outside Amarillo Texas NASA planned to sell the helium slowly over a period of 18 years so that the sales would not destabilize the worldwide helium market The closure had the potential to affect NASA the federal governmentrsquos largest user of

138 NASA ldquoNASA Rolls Out Award-Winning lsquoThunderrsquordquo news release 96-197 1 October 1996 139 United Press International ldquoChina To Assist US Space Programrdquo 3 October 1996 140 Mark Carreau ldquoAnother Wrenching Experience for Shuttlerdquo Houston Chronicle 3 October 1996

38


helium At the time of the reserversquos closure NASA was using about 70 million cubic feet (2 million cubic meters) of helium annually to pressurize Shuttle fuel tanks among other uses141

10 October NASA researchers at Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) completed the testing of the Fshy16XL at Edwards Air Force Base The tests had taken more than one year to complete Scientists were studying how the modified F-16 flew with US$14 million laminar-flow gloves on its wings The data they collected demonstrated that the glove had reduced the turbulent layer of air that passes over an airplanersquos wing during flight Project Manager Carol A Reukauf called the tests successful NASA hoped the results would provide manufacturers with a new technology that would improve aeronautical design decreasing air drag on airplanes and consequently reducing the fuel required to fly142

11 October NASA marked the 50-year anniversary of the Bell X-1 aircraftrsquos first flight which took place at the site of Edwards Air Force Base home of NASArsquos DFRC According to Jay Miller the author of The X-Planes X-1 to X-33 the X-1 had given flight researchers and engineers their first full-scale tool to study transonic aerodynamics The Bell Aircraft Corporation the US Army Air Forces (predecessor of the US Air Force) and NASArsquos predecessor the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had collaborated to get the first test plane off the ground The X-1 test not only provided aeronautical data but also pioneered the test methods later adopted by DFRC flight researchers143

15 October Russia postponed the scheduled launch of Progress M-33 a cargo vehicle loaded with supplies for the two Russian cosmonauts and the one American astronaut aboard the Mir space station The delay highlighted once again the severe budget crisis of the Russian Space Agency A lack of funding held up the production of the rocket booster needed to send the craft into space The crew on Mir had sufficient supplies aboard the space station but missed the visit from Earth Besides supplying food regular planned visits provided needed contact for the space dwellers The postponement was the fourth time in 1996 that Russia had delayed the scheduled launch to Mir because of problems paying for the production of Soyuz-U boosters Reuters announced that because of the delay a group of laboratory monkeys already wired to monitor the effects of space travel would die without ever leaving Earth144

18 October NASA announced the completion of a major benchmark in the development of its Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) as engineers completed the delicate task of assembling the high-resolution cylindrical mirrors needed for the facilityrsquos telescope Engineers aligned and cemented the mirrors into place at the facility in Rochester New York Unlike optical telescopes

141 Associated Press ldquoClinton Signs Law Killing Federal Helium Reservesrdquo 9 October 1996 142 Jay Levine ldquoLaminar Flow Tests Successfulrdquo Antelope Valley Press (Palmdale CA) 10 October 1996 143 NASA ldquoThe X-Planes 50 Years of High Desert lsquoRight Stuffrsquordquo news release 96-204 10 October 1996 144 Reuters ldquoRussia Postpones Mir Supply Rocket Missionrdquo 16 October 1996

39


the AXAF used a series of shallow mirrors shaped like cylindrical cones to produce its image AXAFrsquos mirrors were the largest set of such mirrors ever constructed145

19 October For the first time in its 30-year history KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida welcomed the public for an open house Nearly 40000 visitors came to KSC for the occasion NASA allowed visitors to drive directly down the road used by the astronauts and up to Shuttle Columbia sitting on the launchpad Many visitors commented on how worn the Shuttle looked after its many launches and reentries The details of the Shuttlersquos appearance were not visible to viewers watching the Shuttle on television NASA officials also opened the Vehicle Assembly Building one of the largest structures in the world Astronauts were available to greet the public146

22 October NASA announced the retirement of Jay F Honeycutt Director of KSC A search for Honeycuttrsquos successor began immediately following the announcement Honeycutt had joined NASA in 1966 after working as an engineer for Redstone Arsenal He had begun as an engineer in flight operations and had worked at JSC later training Apollo astronauts for the lunar landings and had moved to NASA Headquarters in 1981 Honeycutt had transferred to KSC in 1989 as Director of Shuttle Management and Operations and had become Director of KSC in 1995 Honeycutt had won two Exceptional Service Medals the Special Achievement Award NASArsquos Outstanding Leadership Medal NASArsquos Equal Employment Opportunity Award and the Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award147

24 October DFRC test pilot Edward T Schneider received the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Chanute Flight Test Award for his work testing the F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle at extremely high angles of attack The Institute honored Schneider at the World Aviation Congress and Exposition held in Los Angeles California Schneider had participated in NASArsquos Attack Research Program meant to improve the control and maneuverability of high-performance aircraft He tested the thrust-vectoring control system installed in the F-18 which allowed pilots to make high-angle motions and still maintain control of their planes Schneider spent nine years testing the F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle during his distinguished 18-year career as a test pilot Schneider had received NASArsquos Exceptional Service Medal in 1996148

30 October A NASA research team published in the Journal of Geophysical Research its findings on urban-like pollution over the tropical South Atlantic Ocean The team used data gathered from an experiment called the Transport and Chemistry near the Equator of the Atlantic (TRACE-A) conducted with the Brazilian Space Agency and scientists from South Africa The scientists suspected that the high concentrations of ozone like those found in densely populated urban

145 NASA ldquoCompletion of Mirror Assembly Marks Milestone for NASArsquos Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facilityrdquo news release 96-212 18 October 1996 146 Reuters ldquoKennedy Space Center Opens Doors to Fansrdquo 21 October 1996 147 NASA ldquoKSC Director Jay Honeycutt To Retirerdquo news release 96-215 22 October 1996 148 Antelope Valley Press (Palmdale CA) ldquoDryden Pilot Receives Flying Awardrdquo 25 October 1996 httpwwwnasagovlbcentersdrydennewsBiographiesPilotsbd-dfrc-p014html (accessed 5 August 2007)

40


areas resulted from seasonal burnings in South America and Africa According to the NASA researchers the presence of pollution over the tropical ocean confirmed that humans had extended their negative impact on ldquotraditionally pristine airrdquo far beyond reaches directly above land According to one researcher the results of TRACE-A greatly improved the scientific communityrsquos understanding of the atmospheric chemistry of the Southern Hemisphere149

NOVEMBER 1996

4 November NASA released images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope revealing a dust storm on Mars nearly the size of the state of Texas The storm appeared in the pictures of the planet as a 600shymile-long (965-kilometer-long) salmon-colored patch Scientists believed this was the first time that one of the huge storms had neared the planetrsquos northern polar ice cap150

6 November A team of scientists from the United States the United Kingdom and Australia discovered new evidence that pushed back considerably the scientifically estimated date of the origin of life on Earth The researchers projected that the Earthrsquos age might be 350 million years older than previously thought The research team led by Gustaf Arrhenius published its findings in the 7 November issue of Nature The scientists argued that the presence of apatite (basic calcium phosphate) in Earthrsquos oldest known sediment sequences suggested that life had emerged on Earth 385 billion years ago The scientific community met these findings with both excitement and skepticism151

7 November NASA spacecraft managers reported the failure of two scientific satellites NASA had designed the Scientific Applications Satellite-B (SAC-B) launched three days earlier from NASArsquos Wallops Flight Facility to survey solar flares and gamma-ray bursts The project was a cooperative effort between NASA and Argentina NASA scientists had intended the second satellite HETE (High Energy Transient Experiment) to remain dormant until it detected sunlight at which time it would deploy transmitting signals Scientists doubted this would ever occur because the satellite had fallen into a tumbling pattern Officials hypothesized that the satellites had not deployed properly and therefore had orbited uselessly lacking electrical power NASA valued both satellites at more than US$20 million The launch failure was the third miscue in two years for the Pegasus rocket program The Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles Virginia developed and ran the program152

149 NASA ldquoNASA Team Finds Urban-Like Pollution in Tropical South Atlanticrdquo news release 96-220 30 October 1996 150 Reuters ldquoHubble Shows Texas-Size Dust Storm on Marsrdquo 4 November 1996 151 S J Mojzsis et al ldquoEvidence for Life on Earth Before 3800 Million Years Agordquo Nature 384 no 6604 (7 November 1996) 55 Malcolm W Browne ldquoEvidence Puts Date for Lifersquos Origin Back Millions of Yearsrdquo New York Times 7 November 1996 152 John Mintz ldquoOrbital Sciences Fails in Another Launchrdquo Washington Post 5 November 1996 Associated Press ldquoNASA Reports Failure of Scientific Satellitesrdquo 7 November 1996 NASA ldquoSAC-BHETE Spacecraft No Longer Operationalrdquo news release 96-231 7 November 1996

41


NASA launched into space its unpiloted Mars Global Surveyor the first in a series of missions to explore the Red Planet further The Mars Global Surveyor Mission and vehicle embodied a shift in the United Statesrsquo approach to space exploration With the expressed intent to make exploration as affordable and reliable as possible NASA had developed the smaller Mars Global Surveyor measuring 5 by 5 by 10 feet (15 by 15 by 3 meters) and designed to carry less fuel than Mars Observer Mars Global Surveyor cost NASA US$150 million to develop whereas Observer had cost nearly US$1 billion and had failed to reach Mars after its 1992 launch Surveyorrsquos ability to function with less fuel than previous models heightened the chances that it would succeed in its mission NASA predicted that after ascending to the desired 235-mile-high (378-kilometer-high) orbit the robotic Global Surveyor would have to travel nearly halfway around the Sun before catching up with Mars in September 1997 The spacecraft would then begin mapping the Martian atmosphere and surface a survey planned to last 687 days Mission objectives included searching for evidence of life on Mars gathering data about the Martian climate learning more about the planetrsquos geology and determining what resources were necessary to support future human missions to Mars According to NASA the search for water was the unifying theme of all missions to Mars The Mars Global Surveyor Mission continued the exploration of Mars that NASA had begun with the Mariner and Viking missions of the 1960s and 1970s153

12 November In its annual contest Popular Science magazine honored NASArsquos experimental flight-control system as one of the best technological developments of 1996 NASA had installed the system developed for the use of NASA and the US Air Force in a remotely piloted aircraft called LoFLYTE (Low Observable Flight Test Experiment) On board the aircraft the system used techniques involving neural networks to ldquolearnrdquo to fly actually acquiring flight skills by mimicking the actions of the pilot controlling the plane from the ground Neural networks are systems that learn skills by doing them Scientists hoped the technology might eventually have an impact on commercial and military aviation154

A malfunction in an unpiloted test plane forced NASA officials to detonate the plane high above Edwards Air Force Base in California The lightweight plane dubbed Theseus veered out of control during a routine test flight Aurora Flight Systems had developed the US$5 million plane for long-term flights to observe climatic conditions from altitudes as high as 60000 feet (18300 kilometers) A spokesperson for Aurora indicated that the company had insufficient data to determine the cause of the failure NASA had contracted with Aurora Flight Systems to develop the plane as part of its Mission to Planet Earth initiative At the time of the forced detonation NASA had not designated funds to develop any subsequent Theseus models155

15 November

153 Associated Press ldquoMars Probe Heads for Mappingrdquo 8 November 1996 Paul Hoversten ldquoSurveyor Sets Off for Marsrdquo USA Today 8 November 1996 NASA ldquo1996 Mars MissionmdashPress Kitrdquo news release 96-207 November 1996 154 NASA ldquoAircraft Flight-Control System Wins lsquoBest of Whatrsquos Newrsquordquo news release 96-233 12 November 1996 155 David Colker ldquoPilotless Test Plane Blown Up After It Veers Off Courserdquo Los Angeles Times 13 November 1996 Jim Skeen ldquoPilotless Aircraft Crashes at Edwardsrdquo Antelope Valley News (Palmdale CA) 13 November 1996

42


NASA appointed Samuel L Venneri as Chief Technologist at NASA Headquarters reporting directly to Administrator Daniel S Goldin The appointment placed Venneri in charge of all of NASArsquos technology policy initiatives and programs Venneri had served at NASA since 1981 after working as an aerospace consultant for Swales and Associates and as an engineer for Fairchild Space Electronics156

17 November A Russian nuclear-powered Mars probe crashed into the South Pacific Ocean about 500 miles (800 kilometers) southeast of New Zealand The US Space Command located in Colorado Springs Colorado monitored the descent of the disabled craft but was unsure exactly when and where the probe had hit the ocean Russian space scientists assured NASA that no danger of nuclear contamination existed A handful of experts however cautioned that in an extremely unlikely worst-case scenario the impact could result in a small but lethal plutonium cloud President Clinton vacationing in Australia at the time offered the services of US teams trained to locate and recover stray nuclear materials Russian officials believed that the probe named Mars-96 had failed to reach orbit because of a malfunction during the fourth stage of the Proton-K rocketrsquos ascent Mars-96 carried plutonium pellets the size of eraser heads designed to withstand the pressures of entering Marsrsquos atmosphere The probersquos failure was a setback for the international effort to explore Mars as well as for the Russian space program Donna L Shirley of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory the chief of the US Mars effort called the failure a ldquoterrible terrible tragedyrdquo for researchers Some people speculated that the crash would prompt a rebirth of protests against using nuclear materials in spacecraft157

NASA officials confirmed that tense negotiations with Russia over the composition of the first crew to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) had resulted in Russiarsquos withdrawing one of its most senior and well-trained cosmonauts from consideration NASA had selected US astronaut William M Shepherd to lead the 1998 mission and veteran space traveler Anatoly Y Solovyev to accompany Shepherd Each country strongly insisted that its own astronaut lead the international venture In a letter to Russian Prime Minister Viktor S Chernomyrdin Russian space officials stated ldquoDespite the Russian efforts to make experienced cosmonaut Solovyev the crew commander the American side is [pre]emptorily insisting on the candidacy of American astronaut Shepherdrdquo Because the United States had insisted that Shepherd command the mission Russian officials threatened that Russian Space Agency cosmonauts would not cooperate claiming ldquoexperienced Russian crew commanders doubt the expediency of their participationrdquo The standoff highlighted the diplomatic difficulty of holding together the international coalition necessary to construct the ISS158

19 November Space Shuttle Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida at 255 pm (EST) In addition to a five-day delay because of the weather NASA had delayed the mission for a week so that its engineers could conduct a careful check of possible problems with the rocket nozzles News agencies reported that the fifteen-year-old Columbia the nationrsquos

156 NASA ldquoVenneri Named NASA Chief Technology Officerrdquo news release 96-240 15 November 1996 157 Warren P Strobel ldquoRussianrsquos Mars Probe Crashesrdquo Washington Times 18 November 1996 Richard Boudreaux and K C Cole ldquoFailure of Mars Mission Called Scientific Tragedyrdquo Los Angeles Times 19 November 1996 158 Reuters ldquoTug of War Knocks Cosmonaut off Crewrdquo 18 November 1996

43


oldest Space Shuttle was carrying into space sixty-one-year-old F Story Musgrave the oldest astronaut With his sixth spaceflight Musgrave became the first astronaut to fly on all five of NASArsquos Shuttles In Mission STS-80 NASArsquos final Shuttle flight of 1996 the crew planned to deploy and retrieve two free-flying spacecraft conduct spacewalks and carry out a number of microgravity research experiments Additionally NASA and the National Institutes of Health planned to collaborate on tests further exploring how the human body reacts to the space environment Only hours after Columbiarsquos launch Shuttle crew released the US-German Orbiting Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer designed to make as many as 300 observations of stars and interstellar gas during the Shuttlersquos mission159

21 November The European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Eutelsat) launched from Cape Canaveral Florida aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas 2A rocket a satellite aimed at serving the burgeoning European television market The satellite Hot Bird 2 cost US$100 million to develop and was powerful enough to beam television images throughout Europe and the Middle East Eutelsat led a consortium of co-owner companies from the 45 different countries that co-own the satellite Eutelsat assumed responsibility for operating Hot Bird 2 calling it ldquothe most powerful commercial satellite launched to daterdquo160

25 November NASA returned the record-setting solar-powered research aircraft Pathfinder to flight-testing at Dryden Flight Research Center Pathfinder had set an altitude record of more than 50000 feet (15000 meters) during a flight on 11 September 1995 Wear and tear during previous operations as well as a ground accident inside a hangar had damaged the craft NASA had hired AeroVironment to repair the remotely piloted plane AeroVironment made several improvements and rebuilt the damaged portions of the aircraft The company installed stronger rib structure and higher-efficiency solar cells NASA had adopted Pathfinder in the 1980s after the aircraftrsquos release from a classified military program161

28 November NASA canceled a spacewalk for the astronauts aboard Shuttle Columbia when the astronauts could not open the outer air lock After communicating for more than 2 hours with Mission Control in Houston with officials instructing them to ldquoput as much force as you feel comfortable applying to the handlerdquo Columbiarsquos crew ended preparations for the spacewalk During the spacewalk the astronauts had intended to test a large crane and various power tools planned for the ISS162

29 November

159 Reuters ldquoShuttle Crew with Oldest Astronaut Is Set To Flyrdquo 19 November 1996 John Noble Wilford ldquoShuttle Blasts Off on Mission with 2 Scientific Satellitesrdquo New York Times 20 November 1996 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Mission STS-80mdashPress Kitrdquo news release 96-206 November 1996 Associated Press ldquoAstronauts Release Ultraviolet Telescoperdquo 20 November 1996 160 Todd Halverson ldquoAtlas Sends $100 Million Satellite into Orbitrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 22 November 1996 161 NASA ldquoSolar-Powered Pathfinder Returns to Skiesrdquo news release 25 November 1996 162 William Harwood ldquoSpacewalk Called Off as Air Lock Hatch Wonrsquot Openrdquo Washington Post 28 November 1996

44


The Russian-built Tu-144LL supersonic passenger jet which US and Russian aerospace industries and NASA had modified for commercial purposes performed well in its first test flight after refurbishment The aircraft took off from the Zhukovsky Airfield south of Moscow During the Tu-144LL flight researchers studied the impact of excessive speeds on the aircraftrsquos internal and exterior surfaces engine temperature and handling The aircraftrsquos body constructed primarily from light aluminum alloy held up well during the initial test The Tu-144LL project supported NASArsquos High-Speed Research Program which had begun in 1990 to encourage the development of technologies supporting supersonic commercial travel The Boeing Company had led the US industry involvement in the project with support from McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Rockwell International Corporation Pratt amp Whitney and General Electric Company The projectrsquos aim was to prepare flight-research facilities to adapt to market demands of the future Aviation experts predicted that a commercial market for advanced supersonic transport would evolve early in the 21st century163

DECEMBER 1996

2 December President William J Clinton awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to astronaut Shannon W Lucid the first woman to receive the award Praising Lucid as a ldquodetermined visionaryrdquo President Clinton presided over the Oval Office ceremony as the fifty-three-year-old astronaut recounted her 188 days aboard the Mir space station Lucid recalled fondly her time spent with the two Russian cosmonauts a period characterized by ldquoworking together laughing together and having a good time togetherrdquo Lucidrsquos husband Michael attended the ceremony along with US Senators John H Glenn Jr (D-OH) and Conrad Burns (R-MT) NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin and Russian Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov The US Congress had created the Space Medal of Honor in 1969 awarding it to eight astronauts before Lucid The award is distinct from the Medal of Honor awarded for the highest acts of military service and extraordinary heroism on the field of combat164

Scientists announced the discovery of frozen water on the Moon calling into question the long-held belief that the Moon lacked any form of hydration The Clementine spacecraft had found the ice while using radar signals to examine the depths of the Moonrsquos craters The discovery was the by-product of a US$75 million mission co-sponsored by NASA and the US Department of Defense to test the Ballistic Missile Defense Organizationrsquos ldquoStar Warsrdquo sensors developed to detect and track missiles The possible ice deposit composed of the suspected ice crystals mixed with dirt and spread over a vast landscape was termed a dirty lake The scientists discovered the ice in a massive extremely deep crater One scientist described the crater as twice the size of Puerto Rico and deeper than the height of Mount Everest Scientists discussing the significance of the discovery postulated that the presence of water on the Moon might be a boon to future space exploration perhaps enabling the construction of a ldquofilling stationrdquo on the Moon Other

163 NASA ldquoFirst Flight of US-Russian Supersonic Testbed Scheduled for Nov 29rdquo news release N96-78 26 November 1996 ldquoRussian Tu-144LL SST Joint NASA Flying LaboratorymdashFlight November 29 1996rdquo httpnixlarcnasagovinfojsessionid=1f4kro1asktqmid=EC96-43859-2amporgid=7 (accessed 1 August 2007) 164 Associated Press ldquoPresident Clintonrsquos Remarks in Awarding Medal to Shannon Lucidrdquo 2 December 1996 Associated Press ldquoClinton Gives Medal to Record-Setting Astronautrdquo 2 December 1996 For more information see NASA History Division ldquoCongressional Space Medal of Honorrdquo 28 April 2006 httphistorynasagov spacemedalhtm

45


scientists offered a more sober opinion of the findings referring to reports that the presence of water on the Moon might someday allow for colonization as ldquohyperbolerdquo165

4 December NASA launched its second unpiloted craft Mars Pathfinder less than a month after the first continuing its concentrated program of Mars exploration The US$196 million Pathfinder lifted off from Cape Canaveral Florida aboard a Delta II rocket on a mission planned to cover more than 300 million miles (480 million kilometers) NASA researchers expected the six-wheeled craft to land on Mars on 4 July 1997 and to journey across the planetrsquos surface gathering images of rocks and soil Depending on how useful the images were scientists planned for Pathfinder to roam Mars for at least one week and perhaps for months straying no farther than approximately 60 feet (18 meters) away from its landing site166

5 December NASA officials announced that a funding crisis in Russia would delay the human occupation of the International Space Station (ISS) up to eight months Before the announcement NASA had learned that the financial problems of the Russian Space Agency had virtually halted Russiarsquos work on the orbiting laboratoryrsquos nerve center Without Russiarsquos contribution to the station the crew of the ISS would have nowhere to stay during the construction of the station in space NASA officials remained hopeful that Russia would release funding for the project and keep its commitment to the effort Nevertheless NASA officials began revisiting contingency plans to address reductions in funding Russian Space Agency officials planned to meet with their NASA counterparts to discuss the situation167

6 December Scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas revealed their discovery of an ancient river channel buried beneath the Sahara Desert in Africa publishing their findings in Science magazine The discovery offered an answer to a question that had long perplexed the scientific community why does the Nile River as it flows through the worldrsquos largest desert (in Sudan) make a huge looping bend in its course The Nile generally flows toward the north except at the Great Bendrsquos turning where the river flows toward the southwest for more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) After this detour the Nile resumes its course toward the Mediterranean Sea The researchers had used the images taken by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar CX-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-CX-SAR) which had flown with Shuttle Endeavourrsquos Mission STS-59 in 1994 to study the ancient structures in the Precambrian rock guiding the riverrsquos course The SIR-CX-SAR radar waves had penetrated the sand to reveal unseen structures not visible without the satellite images Diane L Evans SIR-C Project Manager at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) called the discovery ldquoone of the most exciting discoveries from the SIR-CXshy

165 John Noble Wilford ldquoThe Moon May Have Water and Many New Possibilitiesrdquo New York Times 4 December 1996 Associated Press ldquoDeep Within Lunar Crater Small Frozen Lake Is Foundrdquo 3 December 1996 Joyce Price ldquoProspect of Ice on Moon Fires Hopes of Scientistsrdquo Washington Times 4 December 1996 Curt Suplee ldquoThe Moonrsquos lsquoDirty Lakersquo Makes Wavesrdquo Washington Post 4 December 1996 166 John Noble Wilford ldquoUS Launches Second Craft on a Mission To Study Marsrdquo New York Times 5 December 1996 167 William Harwood ldquoFunding Crisis To Delay Occupation of Space Stationrdquo Washington Post 6 December 1996

46


SAR mission to daterdquo JPL was managing the program as a part of NASArsquos Mission to Planet Earth initiative168

7 December Shuttle Columbia landed at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida Forced to remain in space an additional day because of bad weather Columbia and its crew had set an endurance record of nearly 18 days in space only one day short of the previous record of 17 days Heavy fog in Florida was the cause of the landing delay169

9 December NASA announced the completion on time and on budget of the first major component of the ISS Russiarsquos Khrunichev Industries and the Boeing Company had combined efforts to construct Functional Cargo Block (known by its Russian abbreviation FGB) a 20-ton (18000-kilogram or 18-tonne) pressurized module Members of the international space team planned to launch the spacecraft from Russia in November 1997 FGB formed the initial building block of the ISS featuring computer equipment thermal controls fire detection tools and navigational apparatus Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and Boeing Defense and Space Group received US$190 million for developing and building the craft According to the plan the ISS team would add many other components to FGB170

11 December In a postflight inspection NASA engineers discovered that one loose screw had caused the hatch on Shuttle Columbia to jam preventing the astronauts from taking their scheduled spacewalks The screw had probably dislodged during takeoff falling into the gears of the hatch NASA had decided to cancel the spacewalks rather than force the hatch open and risk damaging it permanently With the Shuttle scheduled to launch again in one month NASA faced the question of whether to remove and replace the gearboxes on all the hatches inside the Shuttle as a precautionary measure171

12 December Researchers at NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center announced that tests aimed at improving the efficiency of Space Shuttle engines would likely translate into substantial savings for commercial airlines as well Researchers had learned that locating an enginersquos turbine airfoils in the ldquooptimum positionrdquo could cut down the flow of fluttering wakes of gases When wakes occur an engine requires additional energy to run and generates higher temperatures NASA researchers predicted that the findings would have special application for the Boeing 777 Improving efficiency by a half percent would save hundreds of gallons of fuel per flight The researchers had based the new positioning of the turbines upon the simple principle evident when a bike racer drafts behind a competitor⎯because the first rider takes the full brunt of the wind

168 Robert J Stern and Mohamed Gamal ldquoThe Origin of the Great Bend of the Nile from SIR-CX-SAR Imageryrdquo Science 274 no 5293 (6 December 1996) 1696minus1698 NASA ldquoSpace Radar Unearths Secrets of the Ancient Nilerdquo news release 96-251 6 December 1996 169 Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttle Sets a Record for a Missionrdquo 7 December 1996 170 NASA ldquoStationrsquos First Module Assembled Ready for Testingrdquo news release 96-253 9 December 1996 171 Associated Press ldquoLoose Screw Caused Stuck Hatch on Shuttlerdquo 12 December 1996 Associated Press ldquoNASA Hatching Up Plan in Case Emergency Spacewalk Is Neededrdquo 2 December 1996

47


the second can travel equally as fast with less exertion The engineers found that by aligning turbines in the most efficient positions the engine derived a similar drafting172

New audio recordings gathered from the excursion of NASArsquos Galileo spacecrafts to Jupiterrsquos large moon Ganymede contained a ldquosoaring whistle and hissing staticrdquo suggesting that the moon possesses a planet-like magnetosphere According to Donald A Gurnett who had conducted the experiments using Galileorsquos plasma wave instrument the data ldquois kind of like looking at a musical scorerdquo The sound patterns mimic those found on Earth Saturn and Jupiter Gurnett suggested that the new findings would have broad significance for the scientific community possibly allowing scientists to draw further conclusions about the interplay between magnetic forces and matter throughout the universe173

NASA announced the successful harvest of the first crop of healthy plants grown completely in space Grown aboard the Russian space station Mir the super-dwarf wheat grew robustly in the microgravity of space Researchers at NASArsquos Ames Research Center termed the successful harvest a step toward a greater human presence in space ldquoThe development of plant-based regenerative life support systems is critical to sustaining a crew during long-duration missions such as the Mars explorationrdquo NASArsquos David Bubenheim explained The space station crew had raised the plants aboard Mir in a greenhouse designed by a team of Russian and Bulgarian engineers Florescent lights had provided sufficient light for the plants and the astronauts had injected water directly into the soil174

13 December The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel reported its findings on the safety of the Space Shuttle program concluding that aggressive cost-cutting measures had not increased risks The review responded to critics who had suggested that measures such as outsourcing flight operations had been too drastic causing a precipitous decline in NASA workersrsquo morale Administrator Daniel S Goldin responsible for making NASA a more fiscally lean organization praised NASArsquos ldquoclean bill of healthrdquo However the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel warned NASA about challenges that would arise during the assembly of the ISS cautioning those in favor of cutting the budget against trimming NASArsquos funds too drastically175

15 December The Boeing Company and the McDonnell Douglas Corporation announced that McDonnell Douglas would merge with Boeing in a stock-for-stock transaction The merger the biggest in aerospace history positioned Boeing to compete with Europersquos Airbus Industrie for nearly all commercial airline contracts The merger also strengthened Boeingrsquos position as one of the most influential companies both domestically and internationally in the United States The US$133 billion deal would place under a single umbrella nearly 200000 employees producing annual

172 NASA ldquoApplying NASA Shuttle Engine Test Findings May Save Airlines Millions in Fuel Costsrdquo news release 96-254 12 December 1996 173 D A Gurnett et al ldquoEvidence for Magnetosphere at Ganymede from Plasmawave Observations by the Galileo Spacecraftrdquo Nature 384 no 6609 (12 December 1996) 535 NASA ldquoBig Icy Moon of Jupiter Found To Have a lsquoVoicersquo After All Europa Flyby Next for Galileordquo news release 96-255 12 December 1996 174 NASA ldquoNASA Harvest of Mir Space Wheat Marks US-Russian Firstrdquo news release 96-256 12 December 1996 175 NASA ldquoPanel Review Finds Space Shuttle Saferdquo news release 96-257 13 December 1996

48


revenues in excess of US$48 billion The Boeing Company also emerged from the deal with improved chances of winning major military contracts whereas previously the company had few ventures involving the military aerospace industry However McDonnell Douglas had been the main supplier to the military of FA-18 and F-15 Eagle-model fighter jets to the military Thus the merger brought together leaders in the commercial and military sectors of the aerospace industry creating what one industry analyst called an ldquo800-pound gorillardquo McDonnell Douglas stock rose 20 percent on the first day of trading following the announcement176

16 December NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin hosted members of Congress and other government and aviation industry leaders at a ceremony marking the start of NASArsquos General Aviation Propulsion program NASA launched the endeavor to encourage the development of technologies and manufacturing practices that would create more cost-effective and environmentally friendly aviation-propulsion systems NASA selected as its partners William International and Teledyne Continental Motors along with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Industry Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments Consortium Aviation leaders praised the collaboration as the beginning of a movement to revolutionize aircraft engines and consequently the aviation industry177

20 December Astronomer and Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan died after a long fight against a bone marrow disease he was 62 years old Since 1971 Sagan had directed Cornell Universityrsquos Laboratory for Planetary Atmospheres and Surfaces where he forged his reputation as an expert in exobiology Sagan helped plan the Mariner Viking and Voyager missions receiving NASArsquos Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 1972 Sagan also helped popularize modern science with his widely viewed television series Cosmos Sagan described the television series as an endeavor ldquoto show that science is a delight and to end peoplersquos artificial alienation from itrdquo Saganrsquos The Dragons of Eden (1977) won the Pulitzer Prize Throughout his work Sagan had also argued for the possibility of extraterrestrial life178

24 December Russia launched a satellite carrying two monkeys and a collection of insects snails and plants The satellite Bion-11 launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome 600 kilometers (373 miles) north of Moscow The Russian Space Agency planned to study the effects of weightlessness on the animal ldquocrewrdquo179

JANUARY 1997

7 January

176 The Boeing Company ldquoMcDonnell Douglas To Merge with Boeing Combination To Be the Worldrsquos Largest Aerospace Companyrdquo news release 15 December 1996 Peter Kaplan ldquoMission Inevitablerdquo Washington Times 17 December 1996 David E Sanger ldquoA Giant in Jets and Foreign Policyrdquo New York Times 17 December 1996 177 NASA ldquoSigning Ceremony To Initiate Development of Revolutionary Aircraft Enginesrdquo news release N96-80 10 December 1996 178 Cornell University ldquoCarl Sagan Cornell Astronomer Dies Today (Dec 20) in Seattlerdquo news release 20 December 1996 United Press International ldquoAstronomer Carl Sagan Has Diedrdquo 20 December 1996 179 Reuters ldquoRussia Launches Satellite with Monkeys Insectsrdquo 24 December 1996

49


The Clipper Graham (DC-XA) Incident Investigation Board released its final report concerning the explosion of the vehicle at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico The Board chaired by former astronaut Vance Brand determined that a disconnected brake line on the secondary landing gear had prevented the gear from fully extending The DC-XA a prototype developed by McDonnell Douglas for NASA had flown successfully in its fourth test flight on 31 July 1996 before failing on landing NASArsquos director of space transportation noted that the failure which occurred as part of ongoing research into reusable launch vehicles had strengthened NASArsquos resolve to reduce costs and to achieve efficient reusability safety and reliability ideally using a combination of automation and human control180

9 January NASA reported that one of the two monkeys sent into space aboard the Russian Bion-11 flight in December 1996 had died upon completing postmission tests in Moscow Both NASA and the Russian Space Agency announced that they would investigate the death According to observers both monkeys aboard the mission returned to Earth alert and active The purpose of the flight was to investigate further the effects of spaceflight on the musculoskeletal system181

12 January In the first spaceflight of 1997 Shuttle Atlantis launched for a linkup mission with the Mir space station Mission STS-81 was the fifth Shuttle voyage to bring supplies and new crew members to the Russian space station Atlantis carried the SPACEHAB module in the payload bay of its orbiter with experiments for Atlantisrsquos crew as well as equipment for Mir Michael A Baker making his fourth Shuttle flight commanded the mission with Brent W Jett Jr serving as Pilot Astronaut Jerry M Linenger was also aboard set to replace astronaut John E Blaha as the representative of the United States aboard Mir Blaha had spent nearly four months aboard the orbiting station roughly the same tenure planned for Linenger So that Atlantis could rendezvous with Mir the Shuttle had launched at precisely 427 am (EST) Atlantis would spend two days orbiting periodically firing its engines to draw closer to Mir approximately 240 miles (386 kilometers) above Earth The United States and Russia planned for the ShuttlendashMir missions to contribute to the international teamrsquos development of procedures and techniques for use on the International Space Station (ISS) NASA and the Russian Space Agency referred to the missions as Phase I of the ISS effort182

13 January An international team of astronomers announced the discovery of three black holes in three nondescript galaxies suggesting that nearly all galaxies may in fact have massive black holes Using NASArsquos Hubble Space Telescope (HST) the researchers took a census of 27 galaxies to find a series of black holes massive enough to consume millions of Sun-like stars The findings which the scientists presented in full at the 189th meeting of the American Astronomical Society provided insight into the origin and evolution of galaxies as well as clarifying the role of quasars

180 NASA ldquoClipper Graham Incident Report Releaserdquo news release 97-3 7 January 1997 181 Associated Press ldquoRussian Space Monkey Multik Diesrdquo 12 January 1997 NASA ldquoMonkey Dies After Completing 14-Day Bion Missionrdquo news release 97-8 9 January 1997 182 NASA ldquoFifth ShuttlendashMir Docking Flight Highlights STS-81 Missionrdquo news release 97-2 January 1996 William Harwood ldquoAtlantis Roars into Orbit Begins Chasing Mir for Tuesday Linkuprdquo Washington Post 13 January 1997 Associated Press ldquoAtlantis en Route to Russian Station After lsquoGorgeous Launchrsquordquo 12 January 1997

50


in the galaxy Douglas O Richstone of the University of Michigan who led the research team stated that two of the black holes had ldquoweighed inrdquo at 50 million and 100 million solar masses respectively Scientists remained divided on why black holes exist so abundantly in space One theory suggested was that at the center of most or all galaxies supermassive black holes exist where gases ignite to the hottest temperatures known sending nearby stars spiraling in new directions Ralph Narayan of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics called the black holes ldquothe ultimate victory of gravity183

14 January Henry C Ferguson an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore Maryland announced the discovery of stars residing outside of any defined galaxy Scientists had long suspected that such stars existed but Ferguson and his team were the first to confirm the theories They did so using images captures by the HST which revealed as many as 600 stars in the seemingly blank spaces among the Virgo cluster of galaxies approximately 60 million light-years away from Earth Ferguson suspected that many more stars⎯perhaps as many as 1 trillion Sun-like stars⎯are adrift in the galaxies of Virgo The astronomers theorized that galactic mergers or the tidal forces of nearby galaxies had displaced the stars from their home galaxies184

15 January Shuttle Atlantis safely docked with the Russian space station Mir while both spacecraft orbited at speeds of more than 17500 miles (28000 kilometers) per hour Russian cosmonauts greeted the six-person American crew with the traditional Russian welcoming gift of bread and salt Communication problems delayed the opening of the connection hatch temporarily before American astronaut John E Blaha who had been aboard Mir for four months was able to greet his fellow compatriots and his replacement Blaha reported that the arriving Shuttle looked like a ldquoshiny starrdquo as it approached Mir On hearing Atlantisrsquos approach Blaha ready to go home reported ldquoAll bags are packed Ready for transferrdquo NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin took the opportunity to congratulate Blaha on his contributions to space exploration and to improved international relations ldquoWe spent 50 years aiming weapons at each otherrdquo Goldin stated and he praised the United States and Russia for cooperating in sustaining Mir and planning for the ISS185

16 January Johnson Space Center (JSC) awarded BRSP Inc a US$128 million five-year contract to provide base-operation support services including plant maintenance and operations logistics support and security services for JSCrsquos Houston Texas facility BRSP a joint venture of Brown and Root Services and Pioneer Contract Services had formed to bid for the JSC contract186

183 Paul Recer ldquoAstronomers Find Stronger Evidence of Massive Black Holesrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 14 January 1997 NASA ldquoMassive Black Holes Dwell in Most Galaxies According to Hubble Censusrdquo news release 97-9 12 January 1997 184 John Noble Wilford ldquoHubble Detects Stars that Belong to No Galaxyrdquo New York Times 15 January 1997 185 Associated Press ldquoAtlantis and Mir Make Docking Astronauts Meet for Crew Swaprdquo 15 January 1997 Associated Press ldquoAtlantis Closes in for Late-Night Docking with Russian Stationrdquo 14 January 1997 186 NASA ldquoBRSP Chosen for JSC Base Operation Contractrdquo news release C97-b 16 January 1997

51


Fred C Adams and Gregory P Laughlin astrophysicists at the University of Michigan presented their theory of a ldquoDying Universerdquo at the American Astronomic Society conference Adams and Laughlin had projected the future of the universe based upon quantitative theory concluding that the Earth would die out with a whimper According to their theory the Sun will eventually die out and the light of all stars will vanish The projection was so far off in the distance (10000 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years from now) that it drew a mixture of criticism amusement and intrigue from the scientific community Adams and Laughlin insisted that recently acquired insights into cosmic evolution had allowed them to draw conclusions about the end of the universe albeit in broad terms Previously scientists had lacked even the basic data and theoretical framework necessary to undertake the task The two researchers emphasized that they made no claim to foresee when the universe would end but rather offered the first long-term science-based deduction on how the universe would evolve through four periods of expansion⎯the star-filled era (the present) the degenerate era the black-hole era and the dark era The ultimate result of such a progression was too difficult to estimate according to the scholars187

NASA announced that planned major modifications of Space Shuttle Atlantis as well as routine inspections would take place at the Boeing Companyrsquos facility in Palmdale California rather than at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida United Space Alliance the company contracted for the maintenance and operation of the Shuttle program had recommended the changes According to estimates of the US General Accounting Office completing the renovations in California rather than in Florida would cost NASA an additional US$20 million because of higher labor costs NASA explained that if the engineers had done the work in Florida the launch schedule at KSC along with the need for Atlantis to make a prolonged stay for extensive modifications would have threatened future Shuttle flights The changes planned including rerouting the Shuttlersquos fuel lines involved more than routine maintenance NASA also pointed out that its most experienced engineers worked at the Palmdale facility and that workers at the facility had already made similar modifications to Shuttles Discovery and Endeavour Moreover NASA maintained that permitting KSC to focus on Shuttle launches and missions would be the most efficient use of its resources Nevertheless immediately after the announcement some observers criticized NASArsquos continued use of Boeingrsquos private facility in preference to that of the government-owned KSC NASArsquos previous intimation that the Palmdale facility would be ldquomothballedrdquo for Shuttle repair and maintenance intensified criticsrsquo reaction to the announcement188

17 January NASA released images taken from Galileo as it soared just 430 miles (690 kilometers) above the surface of Jupiterrsquos moon Europa The images revealed the apparent traces of massive ice volcanoes According to early analysis of the pictures ice volcanoes and the movement of tectonic plates had reshaped the surface of Europa one of the bodies in the universe that

187 John Noble Wilford ldquoAt Other End of lsquoBig Bangrsquo Finale May Be Big Whimperrdquo New York Times 16 January 1997 Tim Friend ldquoWersquove Got 100 Trillion Years Until lsquoLights Outrsquo in Universerdquo USA Today 16 January 1997 Associated Press ldquoEnd of It Allrdquo 16 January 1996 188 Seth Borenstein ldquoDespite Boost in Cost Atlantis To Get Tuneup in Californiardquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 17 January 1997 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Atlantis Modification Work To Be Performed at Palmdale Facilityrdquo news release 97-11 16 January 1997 Todd Halvorson ldquoAtlantis Overhaul To Be Done Out Westrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 17 January 1997

52


scientists believed might once have hosted life The presence of water organic compounds and adequate heat all of which would be present if ice volcanoes existed on the moon had led scientists to focus on Europa as a location for possible development of life According to Galileo team member Robert J Sullivan the apparent traces of ice volcanoes supported the even more significant possibility that an ocean might exist below the surface of Europa Because NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) managed the Galileo Mission the scientific community credited JPL with providing the vital new images of the surfaces of Europa and Jupiter that had led to further discussion about the possibility of life beyond Earth189

21 January Astronaut John E Blaha just returning from a four-month stay aboard the Mir space station reported that he had experienced feelings of depression and anxiety during his long deployment in space Blaha indicated that the conditions aboard Mir rather than any elements of the space environment had caused his difficulty According to Blaha the lack of private quarters for US astronauts who unlike the Russian cosmonauts did not have even small personal quarters was one of the most difficult aspects of his stay aboard Mir He also reported that although relations with his Russian counterparts always had remained respectful the tension of getting to know men who spoke a different language in such tight quarters created ldquoanother element of psychological pressure and stressrdquo aside from the inevitable feelings of isolation Blaha reported that he had experienced psychological depression especially during his first month aboard the Russian space station He made these remarks aboard Shuttle Atlantis as it returned him to Earth in the course of radio communications with four people living inside an airtight chamber at JSC in Houston who were taking part in a 60-day experiment for future ISS deployments190

22 January John E Blaha became the first astronaut to leave the US Space Shuttle carried by medical personnel Blaha was experiencing weakness upon his return to Earthrsquos gravitational conditions and NASArsquos doctors wanted to gauge immediately the effects of long-term weightlessness on his body Blaha remarked upon landing that he could hardly move saying that he was ldquoabsolutely stunnedrdquo at the difficulty of returning to a gravity-controlled environment NASArsquos doctors focused specifically on Blaharsquos dizziness and on his weakened bones and muscles hoping to learn how to improve health plans for astronauts living aboard the ISS Blaha had maintained an arduous schedule of exercise aboard Mir to mitigate the weakening effects of the weightless environment In addition he had made the return flight aboard Atlantis lying down in a Shuttle seat to minimize the crush of gravity191

23 January NASA announced the promotion of Gretchen W McClain to the position of Acting Director of Space Station Requirements As Director McClain took over responsibility for establishing

189 NASA ldquoIce Volcanoes Reshape Europarsquos Chaotic Surfacerdquo news release 97-12 17 January 1997 190 Associated Press ldquoAstronaut Tells of Down Side to Space Liferdquo New York Times 22 January 1997 191 William Harwood ldquoAtlantis Astronaut Wobbly on His Return to Gravityrdquo Washington Post 23 January 1997 Associated Press ldquoAstronaut Carried off Shuttle a First for NASArdquo 23 January 1997 Associated Press ldquoReturning Astronaut Sheds Right Stuff Image Is Carried off Shuttlerdquo 22 January 1997

53


policy and standards for the ISS as NASA continued to plan for the space station with ongoing support from the Russian Space Agency the European Space Agency Japan and Canada192

24 January NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin named Roy D Bridges Jr retired US Air Force Major General and Shuttle astronaut as Director of KSC Goldin called Bridges ldquothe right person to take KSC into the next centuryrdquo As Director of KSC Bridges assumed responsibility for the only site for launches of the Shuttle At the time of Bridgesrsquos appointment about 2000 employees worked at KSC along with 14000 contractors Bridgesrsquos appointment followed years of highly decorated service in the US Air Force and NASA Graduating with distinction from the US Air Force Academy he had served in several leadership positions in the Air Force and had received recognition as a distinguished graduate of the US Air Force Pilot Training and Test Pilot Schools Among other awards he had received the Distinguished Service Medal the Defense Service Medal with oak leaf cluster the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters the Meritorious Service Medal the US Air Force Commendation Medal and NASArsquos Flight Space Medal193

FEBRUARY 1997

3 February Space News reported that the Italian Space Agency had decided not to participate in construction of the International Space Station (ISS) because of NASArsquos insistence that Italy meet previously established deadlines The Italian firm Alenia Aerospazio had expressed interest in building on behalf of Italy two nodes the pieces of hardware used to connect different sections of the orbiting laboratory The Italian Space Agency had requested more time to investigate the feasibility of participating after it determined that funding the $150 million project solely in return for additional future use of the ISS might strain its budget for other scientific projects Gretchen W McClain Acting Director of Space Station Requirements said that although NASA regretted the loss of Italyrsquos participation in the ISS placing the project on hold while the Italian Space Agency made its decision would result in significant schedule shortfalls The development highlighted the difficulty of fostering international participation and at the same time maintaining the target delivery date of the ISS194

5 February Flight International published a story claiming that more than 10 years after the explosion of Challenger aerospace engineer Ali Abu Taha had discovered new evidence in Time-Life photographs demonstrating that a breach and a fire in Challengerrsquos right solid rocket booster (SRB) had caused the explosion One photograph taken about 20 seconds after liftoff revealed a 3-meter-long (10-foot-long) flame issuing from an SRB joint and another clearly showed a white object separating from the same SRB seconds later The discovery seemed to support Taharsquos controversial theory that the booster had caught fire at liftoff and burned continuously until the explosion occurred In contrast to Tahas findings which focused on dynamic liftoff

192 NASA ldquoNASA Names Acting Space Station Directorrdquo news release 97-15 23 January 1997 193 NASA ldquoRoy Bridges Selected as KSCrsquos New Center Directorrdquo news release 97-17 24 January 1997 194 Peter B de Selding and William Harwood ldquoItalian Nodes for Station Unlikelyrdquo Space News 3minus9 February 1997

54


loads the congressionally mandated Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident (Rogers Commission) had reported that faulty O-rings caused the tragedy Automatic cameras set up around the Cape Canaveral Florida launch site had taken the photographs that Taha used as evidence for his theory images never released to the public Taharsquos photographic analysis also revealed that the explosion had propelled Challengerrsquos crew compartment thousands of meters away from the explosion partially explaining why investigators had taken 40 days to locate the shell Taha suggested that a shock wave had killed the crew instantly although NASA had never found evidence of a shock wave News of the photographs and of Taharsquos research kept alive the debate surrounding the decade-old accident195

6 February President William J Clinton released his budget proposal which included a request for US$75 million to develop the Space Infrared Telescope Facility NASA had argued that the infrared telescope would aid scientists in answering some of the universersquos most fundamental questions including what is the energy source for the universersquos brightest stars and where is the universersquos missing dark matter Presidential support for the initiative led NASA to hope that it might finally receive the funding necessary to begin building the last of four space-based telescopes proposed as a part of the Great Observatories program In addition to the highly publicized Hubble Space Telescope (HST) NASA had successfully placed in orbit the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and had immediate plans to launch the nearly completed X-ray Astrophysics Facility NASA expected the four telescopes using various kinds of cosmic radiation to survey the atmosphere would provide an unprecedented view of the universe The four telescopes operating together would allow us ldquoto look at the universe at all ages at oncerdquo explained Michael Werner a scientist at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Upon the programrsquos conception in 1991 the National Academy of Sciences had called the Great Observatories the ldquohighest priority for any major new program in space-based astronomyrdquo but a steady stream of budget cuts had made it increasingly difficult to realize the project196

NASA Administer Daniel S Goldin praised the Clinton administrationrsquos budget proposal for 1998 as a sign that NASArsquos deep budget cuts were leveling off NASA had braced itself for a budget as low as US$131 billion and therefore found President William J Clintonrsquos US$135 billion proposal a pleasant surprise The request still entailed a US$200 million budget cut and Congress might reduce the budget further Nevertheless Goldin responded to the proposed budget exuberantly exclaiming ldquoHoly mackerel⎯this is a great programrdquo and remarking that for the first time during his five-year tenure NASA could hope for budgetary stability The proposal also projected that NASArsquos budget in 2000 would be approximately US$132 billion rather than the US$116 billion forecast in previous Clinton administration proposals NASA planned to absorb the small reduction in funding by increasing efficiency especially in the Shuttle program having recently transferred management of the program to the privately held United Space Alliance NASA officials believed that NASA could continue sending up seven or eight Shuttle missions annually if budget trends continued to stabilize On the day of the budget announcement however a NASA advisory panel warned once again that a drastic decrease in

195 Tim Furness ldquoNew Evidence Reveals Fire on Doomed Challengerrsquos Boosterrdquo Flight International 5minus11 February 1997 196 Paul Hoversten ldquoNASA Seeks $75 Million for Another Eye in the Skyrdquo USA Today 6 February 1997

55


the Shuttlersquos funding would compromise its safety Nevertheless Goldin maintained that the proposal would allow NASA to continue fostering ldquofaster better cheaperrdquo science197

Vice President Albert A Gore Jr met with Russiarsquos Prime Minister Viktor S Chernomyrdin to discuss among other topics the United Statesrsquo concern that the Russian Space Agencyrsquos lack of funding might derail plans for the ISS US officials declared that funding was the primary issue in the construction of the ISS ldquoWe have no doubts about their science and engineering proficiency Where we have concerns relates to adequate funding on the Russian siderdquo said one American space leader Although the ISS had received contributions from the United States Russia Japan Europe and Canada Russian construction stoppages on a crucial ISS component already had delayed the project Before the Gore-Chernomyrdin meeting NASA received assurances from the Russian Space Agency that despite financial difficulties Russia would maintain its commitment to the project During the meeting the leaders agreed upon a joint statement committing the Russians to a new deadline Gore stated that he believed the summitrsquos reaffirmation of previous commitments would satisfy members of Congress who were critical of Russiarsquos trustworthiness198

7 February NASA announced that it would join an international consortium of space agencies to support the launch of a Japanese satellite designed to create the largest astronomical instrument ever The launch of the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Space Observatory would create a radio telescope more than twice the diameter of the Earth giving astronomers their sharpest view yet of the universe Astronomers praised the Japanese-led launch as a significant advance for space research VLBI satellites would allow radio astronomers to link together widely separated radio telescopes so that they would function as a single instrument with extraordinarily sharp resolving power The farther apart the telescopes the greater would be the imagersquos resolution NASA equated the power of the new tool with the ability to see a grain of rice in Tokyo from Los Angeles Scientists hoped that the new tool would allow for further exploration of active galaxies with massive black holes Researchers also hoped that the instrument would foster understanding of the mysterious quasars which pour out tremendous amounts of energy and host or create black holes Creating the enormous VLBI network involved 40 radio telescopes from 15 nations Japanrsquos Institute of Space and Astronautical Science led the international consortium of science agencies including NASArsquos JPL the US National Science Foundationrsquos National Radio Astronomy Observatory the Canadian Space Agency the Australia Telescope National Facility the European VLBI Network and Europersquos Joint Institute for VLBI199

US astronaut Jerry M Linenger NASArsquos temporary resident aboard Russiarsquos Mir space station became the second American to ride aboard the three-person Soyuz capsule that had delivered the cosmonauts to Mir Cosmonauts Valery G Korzun and Alexander Y Kaleri Linengerrsquos Russian

197 Anne Eisele ldquoBudget Plan Brings Stability by 2000rdquo Space News 10minus16 February 1997 Larry Wheeler ldquoNASA Makes Do on Slimmer Budget Florida Today (Brevard FL) 7 February 1997 Sean Holton ldquoNASA Cheers Budget that Cuts Agency Only a Bitrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 7 February 1997 198 Associated Press ldquoUS-Russiardquo 6 February 1997 Reuters ldquoGore-Chernomyrdin Talks on NATO Space Summitrdquo 5 February 1997 Cragg Hines ldquoRussia Pledges To Pay Its Share of Space Stationrdquo Houston Chronicle 9 February 1997 199 NASA ldquoLaunch Will Create a Radio Telescope Larger than Earthrdquo news release 97-24 7 February 1997 NASA Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year1996 Activities (Washington DC 1997) p 25

56


partners aboard Mir took Linenger for a short ride around Mir to free a docking station for the new Soyuz vehicle that Russia would soon launch In allowing an American astronaut aboard the Russian craft Russia took another step with the United States to foster a cooperative postcommunist relationship between the two countries200

10 February The Russian Space Agency launched Soyuz TM-25 carrying a crew of two Russian Space Agency cosmonauts Vasili V Tsibliyev and Alexander I Lazutkin and German astronaut Reinhold Ewald to the Mir space station from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan The cosmonauts would become Mirrsquos new long-term crew and the German astronaut would return with the retiring crew in two weeks Germany had paid the Russian Space Agency millions of dollars to carry Reinhold Ewald aboard the Shuttle to Mir201

NASA researchers astronauts and scholars gathered in Washington DC for a conference of the National Academy of Sciences disclosing and discussing details of experiments conducted aboard the Shuttle during two 1996 missions The event commemorated the one-year anniversaries of the second US Microgravity Laboratory and the third US Microgravity Payload Scientists predicted that discoveries made aboard the Shuttle flights in 1996 would eventually lead to technological advances Research on numerous topics from the climate of the universe to human biology could lead to production of cheaper metals and alloys or new synthetic drugs Highlights from the research presentations included the announcement of the discovery that space-grown crystals are of much higher quality than those grown on Earth the description of experiments intended to uncover the effect of space on the production of metal and alloys and the presentation of evidence that the microgravity environment of space had enabled scientists to make more precise measurements of the physical properties of elemental gas202

11 February Shuttle Discovery carrying a crew of seven astronauts launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida on a mission to service the HST NASA planned the 10-day Shuttle Mission STS-82 to upgrade significantly the scientific capabilities of HST as well as to perform standard maintenance on the US$2 billion instrument The spaceflight was the second servicing mission for HST since its deployment in April 1990 aboard Shuttle Discoveryrsquos Mission STS-31 The astronauts planned to conduct at least four spacewalks to install new components such as the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer A NASA scientist described the improvements as ldquoreplacing 1970rsquos technology with 1990rsquos technologyrdquo In addition to the work conducted on the HST Discoveryrsquos crew planned to move the telescope a few miles farther into the atmosphere improving its chances for a longer operating life Astronomers hypothesized that the potential gains from refurbishing the HST outweighed the risks of tampering with its already spectacular abilities justifying the US$800 million cost of the mission The head of the Harvardshy

200 Association Press ldquoAstronaut Rides Soyuzrdquo 8 February 1997 201 Reuters ldquoRussians Launch 3 into Spacerdquo 11 February 1997 202 NASA ldquoSignificant Discoveries from Space Shuttle Experiments To Be Presented at Conferencerdquo news release 97-23 5 February 1997

57


Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics speculated that the refurbished HST could lead to ldquoa whole different kind of sciencerdquo203

12 February The White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security chaired by Vice President Albert A Gore Jr released its recommendations for reforming the United Statesrsquo aviation industry The Commission challenged NASA the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the US Department of Defense to combine their efforts with the goal of reducing aircraft accident rates by 80 percent over the next five years NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin voiced immediate support for the challenge explaining ldquoWersquore looking for solutions that will save livesrdquo He pledged NASArsquos commitment to interagency cooperation and committed US$500 million in NASA funds to achieve a major reduction in aircraft-related fatalities Both NASA and the FAA cited previous successful collaboration efforts between their agencies The Gore Commissionrsquos most controversial recommendation was the use of computerized databases to identify potential terrorists Critics quickly called the plan an exercise in profiling which would foster biased treatment especially toward Arab Americans and passengers with Arab-sounding names Other safety proposals included requiring children under the age of two to sit in their own seats rather than on the lap of an adult as the airlines had long permitted The Commission further suggested that user fees rather than ticket taxes fund air-traffic control that airports deploy a new satellite-based air-traffic-control system as soon as possible and that airports make all airmail packages weighing more than 1 pound (05 kilograms) subject to inspection In total the Commission recommended 53 changes to the current system204

19 February Discoveryrsquos crew released the HST from the Shuttlersquos cargo bay after nearly a week of maintenance and refurbishing work The astronauts had conducted a fifth spacewalk one more than NASA had originally planned to place a makeshift patch on the HSTrsquos peeling insulation ldquoItrsquos not the Hubble Space Telescope Itrsquos really Hubble Space Telescope IIrdquo remarked NASArsquos chief Hubble scientist upon releasing the telescope NASA deemed the mission a complete

205success

20 February Astronaut and lawmaker US Senator John H Glenn Jr (D-OH) on the 35th anniversary of his journey as the first American to orbit Earth announced that he would retire from the US Senate at the conclusion of his fourth term On 20 February 1962 Glenn had orbited Earth three times symbolizing a hard-fought achievement in the United Statesrsquo effort to catch up with the Soviet Union in the space race Glenn first elected to the Senate from Ohio in 1974 made the

203 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Mission STS-82mdashPress Kitrdquo news release 97-18 February 1997 John Noble Wilford ldquoShuttle Starts Space Telescope Missionrdquo New York Times 12 February 1997 Associated Press ldquoImproved Hubble Telescope To Give Astronomers New View of the Universerdquo 8 February 1997 204 NASA ldquoNASA FAA and DOD Challenged To Achieve White House Commission Goal To Reduce Aircraft Accidentsrdquo news release 97-26 12 February 1997 John Mintz ldquoGore Panel Proposes Aviation Safety Stepsrdquo Washington Post 13 February 1997 Robert Davis ldquoFAA Ready To Depart on lsquoClear Path of Actionrsquordquo USA Today 13 February 1997 Robert Davis ldquo53 Air Safety Changes Urgedrdquo USA Today 13 February 1997 205 Associated Press ldquoHubble Released To Search Universerdquo 20 February 1997 Associated Press ldquoLooking for Answersrdquo 19 February 1997

58


announcement at Muskingum College in New Concord Ohio joking that since ldquothere is still no cure for the common birthdayrdquo he intended to retire at age 75206

21 February NASA announced that a plan for collaborative research and development between NASA and five other government agencies might result in the creation of an Internet connection a million times faster than home computer modems The Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative dedicated US$300 million and three years to developing the NGI to fulfill the promise President William J Clinton had made in his State of the Union address ldquoWe must build the second generation of the Internet so that our leading universities and national laboratories can communicate at speeds one thousand times faster than today to develop new medical treatments new sources of energy new ways of working togetherrdquo NASA sites designated for early trials of NGI connections included Ames Research Center Goddard Space Flight Center Langley Research Center Lewis Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory207

Shuttle Discovery ended Mission STS-82 with a safe landing at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida The early morning landing occurred later than NASA had planned because of cloudy weather in Florida NASA praised Discoveryrsquos crew for its work refurbishing the HST208

23 February A small fire broke out aboard the Mir space station raising new questions about the fitness of the aging station for occupation and research The six crew members on board quickly extinguished the fire the result of a faulty air purification unit The astronauts and cosmonauts estimated that the fire had burned for about 90 seconds forcing the crew to don respirator masks Mir continued to function normally after the fire although the heat had melted several cables209

MARCH 1997

2 March Two Russian cosmonauts and a German astronaut returned safely to Russia after tenures aboard the Russian space station Mir The cosmonauts had spent more than six months in space and Reinhold Ewald of Germany had spent two weeks aboard Mir as a paying guest of the Russian Space Agency Ewald conducted geophysical astrophysical and medical experiments during his stay The German Space Agency paid about US$60 million for Ewaldrsquos trip providing a much-needed infusion of capital for Russiarsquos space program210

3 March

206 Paul Souhrada ldquoGlenn 75 Will Retire Citing lsquoNo Cure for Common Birthdayrsquordquo Washington Times 21 February 1997 NASA ldquoGlenn Orbits the Earth 35 Years Ago Todayrdquo video advisory V97-12 20 February 1997 207 NASA ldquoNext Generation Internet a Million Times Faster than Home Computer Modemsrdquo news release 97-29 21 February 1997 208 William Harwood ldquoDiscovery Lands Shuttle Back from Hubble Repair Missionrdquo Chicago Sun-Times 22 February 1997 209 NASA ldquoSmall Fire Extinguished on Mirrdquo news release 97-30 24 February 1997 Associated Press ldquoFire on Russian Space Station Doused but Raises Concernrdquo 25 February 1997 210 Associated Press ldquoRussia-Spacerdquo 2 March 1997

59


NASA commemorated the 25th anniversary of the still-orbiting Pioneer 10 space probe Launched 2 March 1972 Pioneer 10 was the functioning probe farthest from Earth at approximately 6 billion miles (96 billion kilometers) away NASA originally had intended the probe to orbit for 21 months but the spacecraft had continued to perform remarkably well and efficiently long after its designated mission The probe completed its planned objective of surveying Jupiter in 1972 after that NASA launched Pioneer 10 into space at 86000 miles (138000 kilometers) per hour Since then scientists had tracked the probe learning more about magnetic fields solar wind cosmic particles and ultraviolet glow In June 1983 Pioneer 10 became the first human-made object to leave the solar system On the day marking Pioneer 10rsquos 25th year in space the probe still broadcast ldquocrystal-clear datardquo to the NASA control room on Earth NASA did not plan a 26th anniversary for the probe explaining that Pioneer 10rsquos pulse was finally growing so weak that it could no longer facilitate significant scientific experiments211

Design News honored as its Engineer of the Year Bernard P Dagarin the key design engineer behind the Galileo space probe which had successfully navigated Jupiterrsquos atmosphere in 1996 Dagarin had begun working on prototypes for the Jupiter probe in 1978 when NASA awarded Hughes Space and Communications Company the initial Galileo contract According to Design News ldquoNever before had a spacecraft been asked to survive such a long and difficult missionrdquo Galileo had achieved the near impossible Not only was Galileorsquos Jupiter mission a complete success achieving the desired data but the mission had also become the capstone of Dagarinrsquos decorated career212

4 March The unpiloted cargo spacecraft Progress M-33 failed in its planned docking with the Mir space station forcing Russian space officials to decide whether to allow the cargo craft to burn up in the atmosphere or to try again to connect with Mir The docking of Progress M-33 which only had some surplus fuel aboard was not of critical importance to Mir but Russian Space Agency scientists had planned to use the craftrsquos docked mass to adjust the trajectory of Mir News of the failure of the Progressrsquos docking tempered Russiarsquos celebration of its first satellite launch from a new cosmodrome in Svobody occurring on the same day On 6 March the saga ended when Russian officials decided to let the Progress M-33 drift off to burn up in the atmosphere213

6 March NASA researchers at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville Alabama announced a plan to collaborate with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley California to explore the potential of the substance Aerogel which has tremendous insulating capabilities Scientists said that they were optimistic that they could manipulate the material rendering it transparent and therefore especially useful in constructing energy-efficient windows for homes and automobiles During the 1930s a researcher at Stanford University had discovered Aerogel

211 Associated Press ldquoPioneer 10rdquo 3 March 1997 USA Today ldquoNASA To Retire Oldest Interplanetary Explorerrdquo 3 March 1997 212 Lawrence D Maloney ldquoGalileo Probersquos Guardian Angelrdquo Design News 52 no 5 (3 March 1997) 74minus83 213 Reuters ldquoRussia May Try New Space Docking or Let Craft Burnrdquo 5 March 1997 Reuters ldquoRussian Space Launch Marred by Failed Dockingrdquo 4 March 1996 Reuters ldquoRussia To Scrap Spacecraft after Docking Snagrdquo 6 March 1997

60


often called frozen smoke because of its hazy appearance NASA engineers had used Aerogel as an insulating agent aboard Mars Pathfinder in 1996 Although the substance is the lightest solid known⎯only three times the density of air a block of Aerogel weighing less than 1 pound (05 kilograms) can support 05 tons (450 kilograms or 045 tonnes) Aerogelrsquos large internal surface area which disperses heat throughout its structure causes the materialrsquos extreme insulating capability⎯a 1-inch-thick (25-centimeter-thick) Aerogel window would offer the same insulation value as 15 panes of glass John M Horack Assistant Laboratory Director for Space and Science Communications at MSFC called the development of Aerogel ldquoa great example of how NASA space research generates scientific knowledge that can be used to improve the quality of life on Earthrdquo214

A panel of scientists at the National Research Council issued a report warning NASA of the slight possibility that a mission to Mars might actually bring microbes back to the United States Although their report clearly stated that the so-called Microbe Peril was unlikely the panel argued nevertheless that a probe returning from an exploratory mission to Mars could possibly serve as a conduit to bring Martian germs back to Earth The panel issued its warning because of NASArsquos plan to send a mission to Mars to obtain samples of substances on the planet and because NASA scientists had recently identified signs of possible microscopic life on a meteorite The panelrsquos report stated ldquoIf life forms ever existed on Mars either by having been formed in an independent origin or having been transferred there from Earth it is possible that they could have continued to exist up to the present timerdquo215

NASA announced the selection of four industry partners to study and develop a new Earth-imaging radar system The proposed LightSAR system would use advanced technologies to reduce the cost and increase the efficiency of radar-based satellites which gather scientific data and provide commercial remote sensing Project Manager Steven Bard of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) pointed out the unique team approach planned for the project NASA intended to work with industry partners from the start to assess the potential commercial market for LightSAR products and services and to share the cost of developing the expensive new technology with private companies The four primary contractors selected were DBA Systems Inc Lockheed Martin Astronautics Research and Development Laboratories and Vexcel Corporation216

7 March Edward M Purcell 1952 Nobel Prize winner in physics and long-time researcher at Harvard University died Purcell discovered a means to detect the extremely weak magnetism of the atomic nucleus making it possible to ldquolisten to the whisperings of hydrogen through the universerdquo Purcell had served as President of the American Physical Society In 1967 Purcell had won the Oersted Medal of the American Association of Physics Teachers and in 1979 he had won the National Medal of Science At Harvard Purcell held the position of Gerhard Gade

214 NASA ldquoNASA Research in Space May Redesign Household Windowsrdquo news release 97-34 6 March 1997 215 Warren E Leary ldquoMicrobe Peril from Mars Is Possibility Panel Warnsrdquo New York Times 7 March 1997 Associated Press ldquoScientists Warn on Mars Bugsrdquo 7 March 1997 Mark Carreau ldquoFear of Martiansrdquo Houston Chronicle 7 March 1997 216 NASA ldquoTeams Selected for Studies of Potential Partnership with NASA To Develop New Earth Imaging Radar Systemrdquo news release 97-35 6 March 1997

61


University Professor retiring from the university in 1977 Of his Nobel Prizendashwinning research Purcell commented ldquoWe are dealing not merely with a new tool but with a new subject a subject I have called simply nuclear magnetismrdquo217

9 March Professional and amateur astronomers in northern China and in the eastern reaches of Russia witnessed the near-simultaneous occurrence of a total solar eclipse and an unimpeded view of Comet Hale-Bopp According to news reports tens of thousands of people crowded city streets and braved freezing temperatures to observe the spectacle many using pieces of smoked glass to protect their eyes Mohe County in Chinarsquos northern tip had banned the use of smoke-producing stoves and other heating devices to keep the air as clear as possible for the view Chinese television stations broadcast the event only the third time in recorded history when a full eclipse and the passing of a nearby comet had occurred simultaneously218

10 March NASA announced an agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the European construction of two docking nodes for the International Space Station (ISS) In exchange NASA agreed to launch the ESArsquos Columbus laboratory module The ldquolaunch-offset barter agreementrdquo was typical of the arrangements in progress to bring the ISS closer to fruition The ESA announced immediate plans for the Italian Space Agency to carry out the actual construction of the two nodes slated for mid-2000 launches In addition to the construction arrangement the ESA agreed to provide a variety of minor hardware including refrigeration units for the astronautsrsquo living space and for research areas of the ISS219

12 March NASA announced the completed construction of the Lunar Prospector spacecraft scheduled for launch in September 1997 Engineers had designed the craft to obtain the first compositional and gravity maps of the Moon G Scott Hubbard NASArsquos Lunar Prospector Mission Manager at Ames Research Center praised contractor Lockheed Martin for its efficient construction and for keeping project costs at forecasted levels NASA projected that the total cost to build Lunar Prospector and send it to the Moon would be about US$63 million Scientists explained the need to return to the Moon even though it was ldquoconqueredrdquo decades ago reminding the public that many important questions about the Moonrsquos history and its fundamental composition remained unexplored Researchers hoped that Lunar Prospectorrsquos planned one-year mission orbiting the Moon would create a detailed map of the Moonrsquos surface composition and gravitational and magnetic fields Lunar Prospector itself was compact⎯only 45 feet (137 meters) high 4 feet (122 meters) in diameter and weighing 660 pounds (300 kilograms) Even before its launch scientists hailed Lunar Prospector as a new type of pathfinder which had ldquomade history in terms of management style technical approach cost management and focused sciencerdquo Prospector used a gamma-ray spectrometer to provide maps of the composition of the Moon thereby allowing scientists to understand better the elements present in the surface layer of the Moon220

217ldquoEdward Purcell 84 Physicist Who Shared a Nobel Prizerdquo New York Times 10 March 1997 218 Associated Press ldquoComet Eclipse Dazzle Chinese Russiansrdquo 10 March 1997 219 NASA ldquoNASA-ESA Agreement Enhances Station with Additional Noderdquo news release 97-36 10 March 1997 220 NASA ldquoLunar Prospector Spacecraft Construction Completerdquo news release 97-38 12 March 1997

62


13 March As the public anticipation of the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp heightened NASA announced that NASA-supported researchers would use its vast resources⎯including spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)⎯to study the comet Scientists hoped that studying Hale-Bopp would lead to a greater general understanding of comets Because comets are composed of loosely packed dirt and ice experts consider them the best-preserved remnants of the early solar system NASA disclosed that the Wallops Flight Facility would launch four rockets using ultraviolet wavelengths to study Comet Hale-Bopp In addition the Ulysses spacecraft the joint project of NASA and the ESA which was already in orbit at the time would chart the effects of solar-wind conditions on comets However scientists also disclosed that the close proximity of Hale-Bopp to the Sun posed a danger to HSTrsquos sensitive detectors therefore they had determined to wait until a few months after the cometrsquos approach to Earth before tracking it with the telescope JPL planned to host a public event called Comet Chasers On the Trail of a Comet to bring scholars and the public together to discuss the significance of Comet HaleshyBopp221

New support emerged for NASA scientistsrsquo claim that a meteorite discovered in August 1996 held fossil evidence of primitive Martian life In an article in Science a group of researchers from California Institute of Technology and McGill University used magnetic studies to demonstrate that the findings on the meteorite were not as some critics had contended the result of a high-temperature environment that would have made life impossible ldquoWhat we are able to show from the magnetic studies is that these things [the fossil remnant that had excited the interest of Johnson Space Center geologists] couldnrsquot have been heated even to the boiling point of waterrdquo Although the scientists did not explicitly support NASArsquos earlier claim that the remnant provided evidence for bacterial life the teamrsquos discovery opened the intriguing possibility that remnants of primitive life could migrate from one planet to another222

NASA announced that through its Small Business Innovative Research program researchers had successfully used recycled plastic milk bottles to create a more effective lightweight insulation for clothing and blankets The material had the same honeycomb structure as that of the metal heat barriers used in spacecraft According to the principal investigator Steven D Miller of S D Miller and Associates ldquoThe blankets are better than wool or fleece because they are non-allergenic and they dry five times faster The new material is also four times warmer than wool in cold and damp conditionsrdquo The research team hypothesized that agencies such as the Red Cross or other emergency medical personnel eventually would be able to use the new material to warm patients more quickly After developing the product for space and commercial uses NASA planned to allow Millerrsquos company to pursue further commercialization opportunities without NASA funding223

221 NASA ldquoNASA Plans Comet Hale-Bopp Observing Campaign Activitiesrdquo news release N97-17 13 March 1996 222 Joseph L Kirschvink et al ldquoPaleomagnetic Evidence of a Low-Temperature Origin of Carbonate in the Martian Meteorite ALH84001rdquo Science 275 no 5306 (14 March 1997) 1629minus1634 Mark Carreau ldquoCalifornia Scientists Back NASArsquos Theory of Life on Marsrdquo Houston Chronicle 14 March 1997 John Noble Wilford ldquoStudy Backs Idea that Meteorite Hints of Life on Marsrdquo New York Times 14 March 1997 223 NASA ldquoNASA Technology Creates Market for Recycled Milk Bottlesrdquo news release 97-39 13 March 1997

63


NASA announced the establishment of a National Microgravity Center formed in conjunction with Case Western Reserve University and the Universities Space Research Association NASA selected Lewis Research Center (LERC) in Cleveland Ohio to lead its research efforts in the project Plans for the nationrsquos first center dedicated exclusively to microgravity research focused on five areas 1) research and technology development 2) science program outreach and development 3) scientific support 4) technology transfer to industry and 5) public education initiatives NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced the endeavor stating ldquoThe National Center for Microgravity Research on Fluids and Combustion represents a commitment to our goal to strengthen the partnership between NASA and our nationrsquos research community in universities and industry so that together we can increase the scientific and economic payoffs from NASArsquos Microgravity Science Programrdquo NASA selected Simon Ostrach a distinguished professor of engineering at Case Western University as Director of the National Microgravity Center As Director Ostrach would be responsible for managing the Centerrsquos staff of more than 30 people and for shaping an agenda of research that would take advantage of opportunities aboard the ISS224

20 March Japanrsquos National Space Development Agency (NASDA) unveiled its key contribution to the ISS two satellites named after stars⎯Orihime and Hikoboshi which Japan planned to launch aboard an H-2 rocket The satellites would make it easier to perform unpiloted docking experiments on the ISS Japanrsquos interest in robotic space research fueled the proposal which complemented NASDArsquos plan to build an unpiloted space shuttle to ferry Japanrsquos experiments to the ISS225

NASA awarded its 1996 Government Invention of the Year to a patented high-temperature seal developed for the National Aerospace Plane project Bruce M Steinetz and Paul J Sirocky of NASArsquos LERC directed the research The seal used ceramic and superalloy fibers braided into a malleable structure to seal high-temperature joints on airplanes and Shuttles The seal maintained its form in temperatures up to 2000degF (1090degC)226

22 March NASA marked the one-year anniversary of the United Statesrsquo continuous presence in space a tenure that began with the mission of astronaut Shannon W Lucid aboard the Mir space station Astronauts John E Blaha and Jerry M Linenger had followed Lucidrsquos stay NASA planned to maintain a continuous presence aboard Mir until 1998227

APRIL 1997

1 April The famed Comet Hale-Bopp made its closest approach to the Sun accelerating the cometrsquos process of shedding the gargantuan ice shards that scientists hypothesized might contain the basic ingredients necessary for life to begin Based on data gathered by researchers during the 20 months between the discovery of the comet and its approach to the Sun scientists theorized that

224 NASA ldquoNASA Establishes New National Microgravity Centerrdquo news release 97-40 13 March 1997 225 Reuters ldquoJapan Unveils Experimental Docking Satellitesrdquo 20 March 1997 226 NASA ldquoNASA Selects 1996 Government Invention of the Yearrdquo news release 97-47 20 March 1997 227 NASA ldquoAnniversary Marks Milestone of US Presence in Spacerdquo news release 97-45 17 March 1997

64


the outer layers of Comet Hale-Bopp probably contained methanol formaldehyde carbon monoxide hydrogen cyanide hydrogen sulfide and other carbon compounds Because of its proximity to the Sun many telescopes most significantly the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had to stop tracking the 25-mile-wide (40-kilometer-wide) comet to avoid damage to their sensitive instruments The approach of the comet was a scientific opportunity occurring once ldquoevery 200 years or sordquo according to Brian G Marsden of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Comet sightings thrilled amateur and professional astronomers alike as well as causing some paranoia In one tragically irrational response to its approach 39 members of the Heavenrsquos Gate religious community committed suicide under the delusion that they were about to catch a ride on a spaceship hidden behind the cometrsquos tail228

NASA announced that the newly refurbished and improved HST had allowed astronomers to observe the fading visible-light counterpart of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) a process that researchers called ldquoone of the most energetic and mysteriousrdquo in the universe The scientists speculated that the observable counterpart signified the existence of an unobservable catastrophic burst of gamma rays unleashing as much energy in a few seconds as the Sun does in 10 billion years The New Technology Telescope and the W M Keck Telescope added to the HST in 1997 had enabled scientists to make the observation According to Gerald J Fishman of Marshall Space Flight Center the lead investigator of NASArsquos Compton Gamma Ray Observatory astronomers could not overestimate the significance of the find even if the visible-light phenomenon was only an indicator of another unobservable phenomenon ldquoThis [discovery] opens up a whole new era in GRB researchrdquo Fishman explained ldquoWe now know that it is possible to see the fading optical emission by rapid follow-up observations with powerful telescopes With several more of these we should be able to narrow the models of what could be causing these gigantic outburstsrdquo229

4 April Shuttle Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida embarking on a mission primarily to conduct research on microgravity To understand the effect of the space environment on fire and the potential danger of a fire to the astronauts the mission crew planned to light more than 200 small controlled fires during the mission James D Halsell Jr commanded the Mission STS-83 crew and Susan L Still piloted Shuttle Columbia Still was the second American woman to pilot a Space Shuttle Mission Specialists Michael L Gernhardt and Donald A Thomas Payload Commander Janice E Voss and Payload Specialists Roger K Crouch and Gregory T Linteris completed the crew The Shuttle carried the Microgravity Science Laboratory in its payload and the crew planned dozens of experiments to ldquoserve as a bridge to Americarsquos future in spacerdquo In the course of conducting these experiments focused on processes necessary to carry out the long-duration research planned for the International Space Station (ISS) the astronauts hoped to create new research procedures and protocols The STS-83 marked the 22nd mission of Columbia The Shuttlersquos launch took place after a one-day delay so that engineers could install thermal insulation on two exposed Shuttle pipes230

228 William J Broad ldquoThe Cometrsquos Gift Hints of How Earth Came to Liferdquo New York Times 1 April 1997 229 NASA ldquoHubble Tracks the Fading Optical Counterpart of a Gamma-Ray Burstrdquo news release 97-63 1 April 1997 230 NASA ldquoMicrogravity Research Highlights Mission STS-83rdquo news release J97-8 April 1997 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Leaves on a Mission To Study Firerdquo 5 April 1997

65


6 April Astronauts aboard Columbia consulting with NASA ground support decided to cut short their planned 16-day mission because of the potential for an explosion in the Shuttlersquos electronic generator NASA decided to abort the mission after the crew had attempted for two days to fix the balky generator Despite the fact that the Shuttlersquos two other generators could provide enough power for the Shuttle NASArsquos procedure required the Shuttlersquos return to prevent subsequent problems Space Shuttle Program Manager Thomas W Holloway clarified that the astronauts faced no imminent danger and that terminating the mission was a precaution rather than an emergency ldquoThe conservative thing to do is land on Tuesdayrdquo Holloway said at a news conference Columbiarsquos early return to Earth in Mission STS-83 was only the third time in the history of the Shuttle program that NASA had ended a mission early The astronauts had time to complete only a few of the planned 33 experiments on the mission which cost nearly US$500 million231

8 April Satellite-based monitoring instruments owned by NASA and used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) documented startlingly low levels of ozone over the Arctic North Pole The measurements indicated ozone levels of nearly 40 percent below the levels found in 1979 and 1982 Scientists attributed the low ozone levels to a series of unusual meteorological conditions although they did not yet know the principal causes of the change232

Shuttle Columbia landed safely at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida less than three days after its liftoff The mission planned for 16 days ended early and the Shuttle completed the return flight without incident Columbia weighed more than 236000 pounds (107000 kilograms) at landing the heaviest Shuttle ever to land because of its load of unused supplies for experiments Almost immediately after the safe landing NASA officials began to consider repeating the flight as soon as possible to allow the Shuttle crew to accomplish its original objectives and to avoid the substantial cost of launching an entirely new mission233

9 April Michael H Carr of the US Geological Survey announced that the Galileo spacecraft had captured images revealing iceberg-like structures suggesting the presence of frozen water on Jupiterrsquos moon Europa The discovery provided strong support for the theory that an ocean once existed on the moonrsquos surface Astronomers at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory called the discovery ldquomind-blowingrdquo and ldquothe clearest evidence to date that there is liquid water and melting close to the surface of Europardquo Ronald Greeley the Arizona State University geologist who managed the Galileo imaging team described the structures in the Europa images as ldquoblocks of ice similar to those seen on the Earthrsquos polar seas during springtime thawsrdquo Greeley concluded that a ldquothin icy layer covering water or slushy icerdquo might possibly exist on Europarsquos surface The images revealed one possible ice formation that spread across Europarsquos surface in

231 William Harwood ldquoShuttle Flight Cut Short as Risk Persistsrdquo Washington Post 7 April 1997 Warren Leary ldquoPower Problem on Shuttle Forces a Tuesday Landingrdquo New York Times 7 April 1997 Associated Press ldquoDeteriorating Generator Cuts Short Missionrdquo 6 April 1997 232 NASA ldquoLow Ozone Measured over North Polerdquo news release 97-64 8 April 1997 233 William Harwood ldquoColumbia Lands After Aborted Missionrdquo Washington Post 9 April 1997

66


patches as wide as 4 miles (64 kilometers) Scientists disagreed on exactly how to interpret the images and on whether future exploration would be able to prove the presence of an ocean Nevertheless excitement over the findings spread throughout the research community In its use of the Galileo probe to explore Europa NASA continued its mission to search the universe for other environments suitable for life The Galileo probe almost lost the images when an antenna on the craft jammed slowing data transmission to Earth Galileo came within 363 miles (584 kilometers) of Europa to capture the highly celebrated pictures234

At a tense hearing of the US House Committee on Science and Technology NASA announced the necessity of a significant delay in the on-orbit assembly of the ISS NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin explained the delay ldquoWe knew from the outset that building the International Space Station was going to be tremendously challenging Space exploration is not easy or predictable We will work through this schedule issuerdquo NASA had scheduled the on-orbit construction to begin in November 1997 after Russia had launched Functional Cargo Block known by its Russian abbreviation FGB Inadequate funding for the Russian Space Agency however had delayed the construction of this ISS building block pushing back the overall schedule Russia had also delayed building the service module another key component of the ISS235 NASArsquos announcement invoked further criticism from members of Congress opposed to the ISS initiative Representative F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) long a vocal opponent of the ISS said simply ldquoI told you sordquo Before the official announcement of the delay Sensenbrenner had argued that NASA needed to consider alternative plans in case the Russian Space Agency proved unable to meet its obligations NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight Wilbur C Trafton countered criticism noting that the international contribution to the effort had surpassed US$6 billion and that NASA and its partners still expected to complete the overall project on time in 2002 Because the enormous undertaking involved ldquo15 countries dozens of companies and thousands of workersrdquo keeping production to preestablished deadlines had proven difficult236

12 April The Russian Space Agency celebrated the 36th anniversary of sending the first Russian Yuri Gagarin into space At the same time two cosmonauts and US astronaut Jerry M Linenger who were on board Mir reported that they had almost had to abandon the Russian space station twice over the past few months Russiarsquos successful history of space exploration contrasted with the current struggles of the Russian Space Agency to obtain adequate funding for Mir and other space initiatives When Russia launched its first piloted mission in 1961 the Cold War was driving an intense space competition between the Soviet Union and United States In the days leading up to the anniversary Russian President Boris N Yeltsin expressed his support for increased funding to the Russian Space Agency in the future237

16 April

234 Kathy Sawyer ldquoSigns of Ocean Found on a Jupiter Moonrdquo Washington Post 10 April 1997 Associated Press ldquoScientists Spot Water on Moon of Jupiterrdquo 10 April 1997 NASA ldquoNew Images Hint at Wet and Wild History for Europardquo news release 97-66 9 April 1997 235 NASA ldquoNASA Revises International Space Station Schedulerdquo news release 97-65 9 April 1997 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNASA Delays Start of Space Stationrdquo Washington Post 10 April 1997 236 William J Broad ldquoPanel Upset by New Delay in Russian Space Modulerdquo New York Times 10 April 1997 237 Reuters ldquoMir Crew Has Little To Celebrate on Space Dayrdquo 11 April 1997

67


NASA and the US Air Force Space Command announced an agreement to collaborate on several projects of mutual interest NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin explained that the agreement was part of NASArsquos ongoing mission to become a more efficient and cost-effective agency and that sharing information would lead to ldquogreater efficiencies in our respective missionsrdquo Goldin and US Air Force Space Commander General Howell M Estes III signed the pact establishing seven teams to explore areas of potential cooperation The areas of research included the feasibility of launching defense satellites from the Shuttle the use of the Shuttle for US Air Force technology payloads and development of a plan to meet the dual space needs of NASA and the US Air Force The two agencies also planned to examine ways they might share their common infrastructure and facilities238

In the first study to observe directly a change in the growth cycles of a large swath of the Northern Hemisphere scientists reported that spring was arriving a full week earlier in the Earthrsquos coldest regions than only a decade earlier The report contributed to growing concern over the prospect of global warming Using images obtained from NOAA satellites a team of five scientists from Boston University demonstrated that plants budding in early spring had used 10 percent more carbon than previously indicating the springrsquos earlier onset The scientific community reacted to the report with interest although most scientists cautioned that understanding climate change would be a long and difficult process239

23 April NASA scientist Addison Bain released a study concluding that the cause of the highly publicized explosion of the airship Hindenburg in 1937 was a special paint used to protect the aircraft from sunlight⎯not the ignition of inflammable hydrogen as historians had previously thought Bain and a team of researchers used reels of archived film models and computer simulations to reach the conclusion that the outside of the Hindenburg had caught fire first Because the Nazi government viewed the Hindenburg accident as an embarrassment Germany had restricted the investigation into the explosion which caused the deaths of the 35 passengers The cover-up had led researchers to propose the scientifically unconvincing theory of a hydrogen fire240

25 April NASA announced that it had rescheduled for July 1997 Space Shuttle Columbiarsquos Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL) mission cut short in early April because of a fuel cell problem The quick repair and relaunch plan used the same crew and set the same objectives as the initial Mission STS-83 Space Shuttle Program Manager Thomas W Holloway stated ldquowe are now in the position to do everything possible to complete the MSL mission with minimal impact to downstream flightsrdquo He also pointed out that the attempt to complete the MSL mission provided NASA with a ldquounique opportunity to demonstrate our ability to respond to challengesrdquo In its decision to insert Columbiarsquos Mission STS-83 into an already arranged Shuttle docket NASA

238 NASA ldquoNASA and Air Force Space Command Announce Cooperative Effortsrdquo news release 97-68 16 April 1997 239 Joby Warrick ldquoSpring Sprouting Earlier than a Decade Agordquo Washington Post 17 April 1997 240 Reuters ldquoPaint Led to Hindenburg AirshipTragedyrdquo 23 April 1997

68


acknowledged that it would have to push back slightly other flights already staffed and planned241

28 April At the fourth Compton Symposium on Gamma Ray Astronomy and Astrophysics scientists from Northwestern University and the US Naval Research Laboratory announced the unexpected discovery of two clouds of antimatter in the Milky Way Galaxy The researchers termed the material ldquoantimatter annihilation radiationrdquo The team of researchers used NASArsquos Compton Gamma Ray Observatory to discover the clouds which scientists could not fully explain ldquoThe origin of this new and unexpected source of antimatter is a mysteryrdquo William R Purcell of Northwestern University explained The scientists postulated that the clouds might have resulted from starbursts jets of material from a nearby black hole or from the merger of two neutron stars Attempting to explain the startling nature of the discovery Charles D Dermer of the US Naval Research Laboratory said ldquoIt is like finding a new room in the house we have lived in since childhood And the room is not empty⎯it has some engine or boiler making hot gas filled with annihilating antimatterrdquo242

29 April NASA astronaut American Jerry M Linenger and Russian Space Agency cosmonaut Ukrainian-born Vasili V Tsibliyev made the first joint US-Russian spacewalk in the history of space exploration Linenger more than three months into his four-month stay aboard the Mir space station joined Tsibliyev for nearly 5 hours outside the station The two men gathered cosmic dust samples and installed a radiation meter It was Linengerrsquos first spacewalk and Tsibliyevrsquos third The men both wore Russian spacesuits and spoke in Russian as they cooperated to complete the exercise Scientists planned to use the samples gathered from the spacewalk to continue tests to find the materials best suited for long-term space occupation a question of preeminent importance with the ISS nearing fruition Because of the orbiting position of the space station Russian Mission Control was unable to communicate with Linenger and Tsibliyev while they were outside Mir somewhat heightening tensions during the spacewalk243

MAY 1997

2 May NASA announced that John C Mather a senior astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences often considered the highest recognition possible for scientists and engineers Matherrsquos work at NASA had begun in 1974 specifically on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) spacecraft He had served as a project scientist when NASA launched the spacecraft in 1989 and in 1992 he had participated in the COBE

241 NASA ldquoMicrogravity Science Laboratory Mission Set for July Remaining 1997 Shuttle Manifest Adjusted Slightlyrdquo news release 97-81 25 April 1997 Seth Borenstein ldquoSpace Shuttle Columbia Gets Chance To Finish What It Startedrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 18 April 1997 242 NASA ldquoAntimatter Clouds and Fountain Discovered in the Milky Wayrdquo news release 97-83 28 April 1997 Malcolm W Browne ldquoEnormous Plume of Antimatter Alters View of the Milky Wayrdquo New York Times 29 April 1997 243 NASA ldquoUS Astronaut Ready for Milestone Spacewalkrdquo news release 97-80 25 April 1997 Associated Press ldquoAmerican Russian Take a Spacewalkrdquo 30 April 1997 Associated Press ldquoAstronauts Make First Joint USshyRussian Spacewalkrdquo 29 April 1997

69


project which effectively mapped primordial hot and cold spots in the cosmic microwave background radiation The map demonstrated that radiation from the Big Bang conformed to theoretical predictions providing new evidence for the long-standing Big Bang theory Mather received his PhD in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1974244

6 May NASA announced that it had granted Hitco Technologies exclusive rights to use a NASA-developed heat-resistant material to produce high-performance pistons NASA had developed the carbon-carbon composite in the 1960s for use as a heat shield for missile applications Researchers speculated that pistons composed of carbon-carbon a material with virtually no thermal expansion would allow engines to perform more efficiently holding their shape and rigidity in temperatures well above 2500degF (1370degC) According to G Burton Northam of Langley Research Center the carbon-carbon composite was ldquothe material of choice for the most demanding applicationsrdquo Allowing industry to use one of NASArsquos patented technologies continued the trend of government-industry collaboration that Administrator Daniel S Goldin had fostered245

8 May At Baltimorersquos Space Telescope Science Institute NASA scientists described the long-durationshyexposure pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) as the ldquobest picture we have yet of the early universerdquo announcing that approximately 12 billion years ago the universe had been completely barren of galaxies Richard S Ellis of Englandrsquos Institute of Astronomy emphasized the significance of sciencersquos new ability to use the HST to view ldquoa time before galaxy formationrdquo The HST had opened its lens for many hours of exposure focusing on a tiny wedge of the sky to capture its most probing picture ever known as the Hubble Deep Field Survey Focusing only on a small speck of the sky had enabled astronomers to look deeper into the universe than ever before Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute estimated that the HST had captured a view of the universe at only about 10 percent of its present age246

12 May Hubble scientists released their first reviews of the newly upgraded HST concluding enthusiastically that the refurbished space telescope offered exciting new possibilities The upgrades to the HST significantly improved the range and precision of the instrument Scientists reported peering approximately 50 million light-years away and zeroing in on previously undetectable black holes According to Edward J Weiler the head of NASArsquos Hubble team the added Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph installed in February 1997 reduced the length of time it took to confirm the presence of black holes in the universe Weiler called the HST a ldquocensus bureaurdquo for black-hole hunting allowing researchers to survey these objects as a population rather than as individual phenomena Another new instrument installed in February the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) enabled the HST to capture near-infrared wavelengths beginning to penetrate the ldquodusty veilrdquo that had prevented astronomers from studying the birth and death of stars NASA engineers also disclosed that an early focusing problem with one of the three cameras used by the NICMOS system seemed to be

244 NASA ldquoGoddard Scientist Selected for National Academy of Sciencesrdquo news release 97-88 2 May 1997 245 NASA ldquoHeat-Resistant Material Licensed for High-Performance Pistonsrdquo news release 97-91 6 May 1997 246 Associated Press ldquoHubble-Look Backrdquo 9 May 1997

70


correcting itself Although the flaw could limit the life of the system scientists were confident that NICMOS would still be able to gather and preserve all scientific data During early testing of the NICMOS system scientists had uncovered a region of the universe in which young stars eject material into a molecular cloud a process that researchers had long hypothesized but had been unable to observe247

13 May The New York Times reported a soon-to-be released study by Research Policy providing strong evidence that publicly funded scientific research often fueled industrial advancements in the United States According to the study prepared for the National Science Foundation 73 percent of all American industrial patents filed during the two-year study cited scientific advancements made possible by government funding The report had particular relevance because the Clinton administration and its congressional allies both Democratic and Republican had considered paring down the nationrsquos science outlays to balance the federal budget The Council of Scientific Society Presidents called the report ldquoa wake-up call for [f]ederal investment policiesrdquo The study joined an ongoing debate over exactly what contribution general scientific research made to the national economy The National Science Foundation and NASA were two of the agencies most cited in industrial patent requests248

For the first time NASA deployed its ER-2 aircraft a civilian version of the U-2 reconnaissance plane over the North Pole The vehiclersquos flight supported the Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in the Arctic Region in Summer (POLARIS) project The ER-2 flew at 70000 feet (21000 meters) an ideal height for atmospheric research Michael J Kurylo Manager of NASArsquos Upper Atmosphere Research Program emphasized the importance of aircraft such as the ER-2 to fill this specific research niche ldquoIt is really critical that we have access to consistent measurements at this key altitude which is an intermediate region between aerosol particle-driven processes measured by standard aircraft-based sensors and gas-phase processes monitored by orbiting satellitesrdquo Scientists said they were optimistic that the ER-2 would aid significantly the POLARIS endeavor to understand why the ozone layer over the North Pole had experienced reductions during each Arctic summer249

14 May NASA and Japanrsquos Institute of Space and Astronautical Science announced an agreement to combine their efforts to collect and study samples from the surface of the asteroid Nereus According to the plan a Japanese launch vehicle would carry a NASA-engineered rover onto the surface of the asteroid The planned rover with a visible-imaging camera and a near-infrared point spectrometer would weigh less than 3 pounds (13 kilograms) the smallest spacecraft ever sent into space A recovery capsule would return to Earth the samples the rover gathered from Nereus The project would have a lengthy timeframe with the return of the samples to Earth scheduled for 2006 NASA and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science were hopeful

247 NASA ldquoHubblersquos Upgrades Show Birth and Death of Stars Discover Massive Black Holerdquo news release 97-93 12 May 1997 Kathy Sawyer ldquoImproved Hubble Telescope Gets Rave Reviews at NASArdquo Washington Post 13 May 1997 Reuters ldquoHubble Captures Star Birthrdquo 13 May 1997 Associated Press ldquoUpgrade Hubble Telescope Dazzles Astronomersrdquo 12 May 1997 248 William J Broad ldquoStudy Finds Public Science Is Pillar of Industryrdquo New York Times 13 May 1997 249 NASA ldquoNASA Earth Science Research Aircraft Soars to New Heightsrdquo 13 May 1997

71


and excited at the prospect of joining forces ldquoThis ambitious mission is an opportunity for two spacefaring nations to combine their expertise and achieve something truly fantasticrdquo said Jurgen H Rahe NASArsquos Director of Solar System Exploration250

15 May Space Shuttle Atlantis took off at dawn from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida carrying a crew of seven Mission STS-84 was the fourth mission of 1997 and the sixth of nine planned missions to the Mir space station Atlantis carried astronaut C Michael Foale who was to replace Jerry M Linenger as the United Statesrsquo long-term resident aboard Mir Charles J Precourt served as Commander of Mission STS-84 and Eileen M Collins as Pilot for the Shuttle In addition the crew included US astronauts Carlos I Noriega and Edward T Lu and Mission Specialists Elena V Kondakova of the Russian Space Agency and Jean-Franccedilois Clervoy of the European Space Agency (ESA) Kondakova was the first Russian woman to fly aboard a NASA Space Shuttle With the recent problems aboard Mir many viewed the mission with special urgency Concerned about the numerous breakdowns and the fire aboard the Russian space station NASA even considered refusing to allow Foale to take his place aboard Mir The Shuttle carried to Mir a new oxygen generator which astronauts planned to unload almost immediately upon docking Atlantis took into space more than 7000 pounds (3200 kilograms) of cargo for Mir and its crew251

European astronomers unveiled a new more accurate map of the stars Scientists immediately praised the 17-volume celestial guide as a milestone in astronomy The ESArsquos Hipparcos project had produced the map over 17 years at a cost approaching US$1 billion Astronomers called the release of the Hipparcos data the beginning of a new and fruitful debate Hipparcos Project Scientist Michael Perryman said ldquoItrsquos a massive leap forward in our understanding But the science of Hipparcos doesnrsquot stop here For the scientific community it is just beginningrdquo In total the map indicated the positions and motions of more than 118000 stars252

19 May NASA unveiled a new facility called the Chemical Crib at Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) Officials hoped the new facility would reduce chemical waste by as much as 50 percent in three years Waste disposal had become an increasingly expensive problem for NASA ldquoFor every dollar spent to buy chemicalsrdquo NASArsquos Hazardous Materials Officer reported ldquowe spend three dollars to dispose of themrdquo The Chemical Crib would use a variety of techniques and technologies to compress waste such as breaking down photographic-waste chemicals into a sludge possessing as little as 5 percent of the mass of the original waste NASA planned to construct similar facilities at its other sites Staff of DFRCrsquos Safety Health and Environmental Office believed that the new facility would not only benefit the environment but also the Centerrsquos budget253

250 NASA ldquoNASA and Japan To Cooperate on Asteroid Sample Return Missionrdquo news release 97-95 14 May 1997 251 NASA ldquoAtlantis Ready To Fly Sixth ShuttlendashMir Missionrdquo news release J97-15 May 1997 Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttlerdquo 15 May 1997 252 Association Press ldquoMapping the Heavensrdquo 15 May 1997 253 NASA ldquoNew NASA Facility To Reduce Chemical Wastes May Provide Better Storage for Hazardous Materialsrdquo news release 97-102 19 May 1997

72


Astronaut Shannon W Lucid who had spent more than six months aboard Mir in 1996 received the Order of Friendship Medal from Russian President Boris N Yeltsin in a ceremony at the Kremlin The medal was the highest honor available to a non-Russian citizen254

20 May NASA researchers announced the discovery of wildly oscillating weather patterns on Mars In yet another use for the HST images scientists tracked much colder cloudier harsher weather conditions than they had expected R Todd Clancy of the Space Science Institute attributed Marsrsquos chaotic weather to a combination of factors including the planetrsquos thin atmosphere and elliptical orbit and the ice and dust clouds surrounding it When the planetrsquos orbit places it closest to the Sun large windstorms push dust into the atmosphere the dust absorbs sunlight causing the air to heat and Marsrsquos temperature to rise as high as 30degF (-1degC) HST images seemed to demonstrate further that when the planet is farthest from the Sun the dust storms remain at low altitudes and ice clouds surround the planet causing temperatures to plunge precipitously The findings were of particular importance to NASArsquos ongoing Mars Pathfinder Project with Pathfinderrsquos entrance into the Martian atmosphere planned for July 1997255

A Russian Zenit-2 rocket carrying a military satellite exploded moments after taking off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan According to Russian space officials the failure occurred 38 seconds after liftoff when an engine inexplicably shut off The Russian Space Agency suspended all further launches until an investigation could determine what had caused the explosion NASA believed that the destroyed satellite was a spy satellite intended to replace in orbit one of Russiarsquos many outdated satellites Russia had not insured the satellite valued at US$17 million256

21 May NASA announced that an American astronaut would be the first commander of the planned International Space Station settling a long-standing disagreement between NASA and the Russian Space Agency NASA selected veteran US astronaut William M Shepherd to lead the three-person crew which also included Russian cosmonauts Sergei K Krikalev and Yuri P Gidzenko Gidzenko said that he had no problem participating in a US-led mission ldquoIt doesnrsquot matter who will be commander who will be the flight engineer or pilot They all work together and they will try to do their bestrdquo NASA had selected Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Y Solovyev as a member of the crew but Solovyev had refused to take part in an American-led expedition opening the door to Gidzenkorsquos participation257

23 May

254 NASA ldquoAstronaut Shannon Lucid Receives Russian Order of Friendship Medalrdquo news release 97-103 19 May 1997 255 Warren E Leary ldquoHubble Space Telescope Finds Big Shifts in Weather on Marsrdquo New York Times 21 May 1997 Paul Hoversten ldquoKaleidoscopic Mars Shows Its True Colorsrdquo USA Today 21 May 1997 Associated Press ldquoHubble Finds Climate on Mars Harsher than Scientists Thoughtrdquo 21 May 1997 256 Richard C Paddock ldquoRussian Rocket Bearing Military Satellite Failsrdquo Los Angeles Times 21 May Associated Press ldquoRussian Booster Fails Explodes During Satellite Launchrdquo 20 May 1997 257 Todd Halverson ldquoAmerican Astronaut Will Lead First Space Station Crew in rsquo99rdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 22 May 1997

73


The US Capitolrsquos Statuary Hall installed a bronze statue of Apollo 13 astronaut John L Swigert Jr a native of Denver to represent the state of Colorado Each state chooses two statues for the hall to honor its most prominent citizens Swigert was perhaps most famous for uttering the words ldquoHouston wersquove had a problemrdquo Colorado had elected Swigert to the US House of Representatives in 1982 but he had died of cancer before his swearing-in Swigertrsquos statue took its place alongside that of fellow Coloradoan Florence Rena Sabin who led the crusade for womenrsquos admission to medical schools Astronaut Thomas Kenneth Mattingly II whom Swigert replaced only three days before the Apollo 13 launch attended the statue dedication along with NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin and other dignitaries258

24 May Astronaut Jerry M Linenger surprised onlookers at KSC when he bounded off Shuttle Atlantis only minutes after its landing Physicians credited Linengerrsquos excellent condition after spending more than four months aboard the Mir space station to his regimen of orbital exercise NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin was on hand to greet Linenger and the other astronauts returning home on Atlantis The Shuttlersquos safe landing returned Linenger to Earth after 132 days in space⎯the second longest stint by an American259

25 May Educators scientists and politicians gathered to celebrate a new nationwide observance⎯Space Day⎯meant to carry on President John F Kennedyrsquos call to the nation for space exploration On 25 May 1961 Kennedy had urged the United States to ldquocommit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earthrdquo sparking NASArsquos successful development of human space travel Advocates of Space Day argued that a day of celebrating previous achievements and calling for further advances would inspire future space explorers particularly children More than 1900 schools across the nation participated in Space Day activities260

JUNE 1997

2 June Lockheed Martin Corporation announced a joint satellite venture with the Moscow-based Intersputnik consortium Financial analysts estimated the pact could produce more than US$15 billion in annual revenue capitalizing on the increasing demand for satellite transmission services for telecommunication signaling The agreement which cemented ties between the US corporation and Russian space interests combined Lockheedrsquos capital resources with Intersputnikrsquos rights to prime satellite positions Lockheed assumed responsibility for constructing and launching the satellites whereas Intersputnik took the lead in marketing and sales The Intersputnik group represented Russia and 21 other nations The newly formed Lockheed Martin Intersputnik Ltd Company planned to focus on providing services to South

258 Paul Leavitt ldquoNew Statuerdquo USA Today 23 May 1997 Associated Press ldquoNewest Congressional Statue Apollo 13 Astronaut John Swigertrdquo 22 May 1997 259 Los Angeles Times ldquoReturning Astronaut Surprises Even Himself Shuttle Four Months on Mir Sap Less Strength than Traveler Jerry Linenger Expected He Credits the Exercising He Did in Orbitrdquo 25 May 1997 260 Martha Woodall for Knight-Ridder News Service ldquoSpace Day Today To Renew Interest in Outer Spacerdquo 22 May 1997

74


Asia and Eastern Europe⎯burgeoning markets with great potential for technological and economic growth261

3 June NASA announced the start of a month-long research endeavor to explore the levels of radiation present at high altitudes using a refitted ER-2 aircraft The project focused on altitudes between 52000 and 70000 feet (15900 and 21300 meters) where radiation typically occurs because of cosmic and solar rays The project had both scientific and public policy applications researchers intended to use the data gathered to assess the safety of public supersonic travel The campaign funded by NASArsquos High-Speed Research Program specifically investigated the plausibility of the High-Speed Civil Transport still in the conceptual stage of planning a commercial jetliner that would carry passengers at 24 times the speed of sound and at altitudes above 60000 feet (18300 meters) According to NASA Project Manager Donald L Maiden the speed of supersonic flight could mitigate any ill effects of high altitudes on passengers because ldquoEven though the exposure levels are higher at the higher cruise altitude the typical flying public will actually receive less radiation exposure than on todayrsquos subsonic transports because of the higher speed of the High-Speed Civil Transportrdquo NASA the US Department of Energyrsquos Environmental Measurements Laboratory the Boeing Company and the space agencies of Canada Germany and the United Kingdom collaborated on the project262

4 June The Los Angeles Times reported that the students of Glassell Park Elementary School had sold an astonishing 32000 candy bars to pay the way for all 115 of its fifth graders to attend the US Space Camp at NASArsquos Ames Research Center in Mountain View California Most of the schoolrsquos 951 students participated in selling candy to send their older classmates to the educational camp Principal Beatrice LaPisto said proudly of her students ldquoThis is a poor neighborhood Most children here for example are on the free lunch program But these are the brightest best most motivated students yoursquoll find anywhererdquo This year was the first in which the nonprofit US Space Camp Foundation had expanded its operations to the California site263

5 June NASA researchers announced that data from the Galileo probe indicated that Jupiter has distinct wet and dry regions similar to the Earth The finding refuted the previous supposition that Jupiter was mostly dry When it descended to Jupiter in December 1995 Galileo landed in an extremely dry and hot portion of the planet⎯an area one member of the team called the Sahara Desert of Jupiter Scientists assumed that the area was representative of the entire planet until they were able to analyze more long-range images taken by the probe The Galileo team concluded that Jupiter was remarkably similar to Earth with wet dry hot and cold regions as well as rain snow and thunderstorms Before the creation of Galileo scientists had been unable to observe much of the planet because of surface clouds of frozen ammonia According to Robert W Carlson of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASArsquos most fundamental conclusion was that

261 Jeff Cole ldquoLockheed To Unveil Intersputnik Satellite Venturerdquo Wall Street Journal 2 June 1997 Associated Press ldquoLockheed Planning Russia Venturerdquo 2 June 1997 Greg Schneider ldquoLockheed To Link Ex-Soviet Marketsrdquo Baltimore Sun (MD) 3 June 1997 262 NASA ldquoNASA Studies High Altitude Radiation with Upgrade ER-2rdquo news release 97-118 3 June 1997 263 Bob Pool ldquoSpace Racerdquo Los Angeles Times 4 June 1997

75


ldquoThere is weather on Jupiterrdquo However scientists pointed out that in contrast to Earth Jupiter faces weather developments that are far more extreme and long lasting Storms on the planet can last for years or even centuries264

An article in Nature confirmed the discovery of a small icy planet orbiting the Sun well beyond Pluto The discovery confirmed the theory that the solar system extends far beyond previously verifiable limits The planet known as 1996TL66 with a surface area roughly the size of Texas was the brightest solar-system object that astronomers had discovered beyond Neptune since 1978 Astronomers using a University of Hawaii telescope discovered the planet as its orbit passed closest to the Earth an occurrence that happens every 800 years In the past some researchers had hypothesized but had been unable to prove that planets might exist in the area where astronomers discovered 1996TL66265

9 June NASArsquos AeroVironment Pathfinder a remote-controlled ultra-lightweight aircraft set a new world record for highest altitude for a solar-powered aircraft AeroVironment Pathfinder reached an altitude of 67350 feet (20500 meters) shattering the previous record of 50500 feet (15400 meters) The experiment took place at the US Navyrsquos Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai Hawaii Engineers had designed Pathfinder to fly at extremely high altitudes to supply researchers with atmospheric and environmental data that other planes could not gather In traveling to such heights Pathfinder experienced temperatures as low as -100degF (-73degC) After climbing for about 6 hours the aircraft ascended into record-breaking territory flying for more than 90 minutes at an altitude above 60000 feet (18300 meters) A partnership formed under the Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology Alliance involving NASA aerospace companies and members of the scientific community was responsible for developing AeroVironment Pathfinder266

10 June Astrophysicists William P Blair Robert A Fesen and Eric M Schlegel presented to the American Astronomical Society the first images ever recorded of two supernovas colliding The team used the Hubble Space Telescope to capture the images of the supernovas more than 17 million light-years from Earth Astronomers had suspected that collisions occurred between exploding stars but had been unable to capture an image of the process because it was so short-lived Although the scientific community would continue to debate the implications of the image Blair offered this assessment of its significance ldquoIt indicates that not only is there a lot of star formation going on but a lot of those stars are massive They are evolving quickly and they are exploding as supernovasrdquo267

18 June

264 NASA ldquoGalileo Finds Wet Spots Dry Spots and New View of Jupiterrsquos Light Showrdquo news release 97-123 5 June 1997 KC Cole ldquoScientists Detect Rain on Jupiterrdquo Los Angeles Times 6 June 1997 Associated Press ldquoJupiter Wet and Dryrdquo 6 June 1997 265 Jane Luu et al ldquoA New Dynamic Class of Object in the Outer Solar Systemrdquo Nature 387 no 6633 (5 July 1997) 573minus575 Associated Press ldquoAstronomers Find Icy Miniplanet Beyond Plutordquo 5 June 1997 266 Michael A Dornheim ldquoPathfinder Surpasses Propeller Altitude Recordrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 146 no 25 (16 June 1997) 53 NASA ldquoPathfinder Sets New World Recordrdquo news release 97-132 12 June 1997 267 NASA ldquoHubble Is First To Spot Colliding Supernovasrdquo news release 97-129 10 June 1997

76


The US General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report detailing the cost overruns for the development of the International Space Station (ISS) US Senator Dale Bumpers (D-AK) a longtime opponent of the expensive ISS requested the report Upon seeing it Senator Bumpers commented ldquowe donrsquot need to search outer space for black holes We have one right here on Earth Itrsquos called the International Space Stationrdquo GAOrsquos report found that Boeing Company hired by NASA to build the ISS had already incurred nearly US$300 million in cost overruns The report also found that the cost-effectiveness of the project had deteriorated severely from the time of last accounting In 1995 Boeing had been US$27 million under budget as opposed to the severe overages of 1997 GAO Associate Director Thomas J Schulz recommended in the report that Congress should rethink its commitment to the program if the overruns continued to grow The estimate of the cost just to get the program back on schedule was US$129 million However an ongoing debate on a disaster relief bill for the Midwest prevented the scheduled congressional hearing on the report268

NASA announced that Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Company had won the contract to develop and deliver solar-imaging instruments for US weather satellites The US$54 million contract provided funding for the creation of a model instrument and two flight instruments Scientists believed that the solar x-ray images captured by the instrument would improve the ability of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Air Force to forecast special weather events The proposed imager also had applications for civilian companies dependent upon predicting weather patterns269

Jurgen H Rahe NASArsquos Science Program Director for Exploration of the Solar System died when a tree collapsed on the car he was driving during a severe storm in Maryland Rahe 57 years old had enjoyed a distinguished career in the field of astronomy and at NASA At the time of his death he was responsible for overseeing visionary NASA programs such as the Galileo Mission to Jupiter and the much-anticipated July 1997 landing of Mars Pathfinder Rahe had guided NASArsquos efforts to make more frequent and cost-effective exploratory missions of the solar system According to one colleague Rahe had presided over the planetary exploration programrsquos ldquounparalleled period of major discoveriesrdquo Before his tenure at NASA Rahe held tenured positions at California Institute of Technology and Germanyrsquos University of ErlangenshyNuremberg270

24 June As the 50th anniversary of the alleged alien sighting neared the U S Air Force released a 231shypage report entitled The Roswell Report Case Closed The report explained that the US Air Force had recovered test dummies from the Roswell New Mexico crash site in 1947 rather than the bodies of aliens The US Air Force had issued a report on the Roswell matter in 1994 in which researchers argued that the presumed spacecraft that had crashed in 1947 was actually an Air Force balloon used in a top-secret program called Project Mogul When officials discovered

268 U S General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Station Cost Control Problems Continue To Worsenrdquo (report no TshyNSIAD-97-177 Washington DC 18 June 1997) Seth Borenstein and Tamara Lytle ldquoSpace Lab Deep in Red Report Saysrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 11 June 1997 Associated Press ldquoSpace Stationrdquo 11 June 1997 269 NASA ldquoLockheed Martin Selected To Build Solar X-ray Imagingrdquo news release C97-g 18 June 1997 Grant Jerding ldquoNASA Brings Its X-ray Vision to the Universerdquo USA Today 17 June 1997 270 Associated Press ldquoObituary Jurgen Rahe 57 NASA Officialrdquo 20 June 1997 NASA ldquoNASA Mourns Dr Jurgen H Rahe Solar System Exploration Science Program Directorrdquo news release 97-137 19 June 1997

77


evidence that the tests had used parachute dummies however the US Air Force compiled an additional report with the new information Military officials hoped that the Air Forcersquos explanation for the supposed UFO reported in 1994 as well as for the supposed bodies of aliens discovered in the crash would temper the controversy surrounding the issue US Air Force Colonel John Haynes presiding over the Pentagon news conference at the release of the report showed reporters footage of a NASA test craft that indeed resembled a flying saucer Colonel Haynes explained that during testing in the 1950s Air Force balloons had transported dummies to altitudes of 98000 feet (29900 meters) releasing them to fall to the ground Since the testing was secret the sight of falling dummies ldquoeasily could have been mistaken for something they were notrdquo271

In the most serious of a string of problems for the Russian Mir space station the 7-ton (6400shykilogram or 64-tonne) robotic cargo spacecraft Progress accelerated out of control while docking and crashed into Mir damaging the Spektr module tearing a solar-power array and crumpling an exposed radiator When the craft crashed into Mir US astronaut British-born C Michael Foale was inside the Spektr module which he had been using as his sleeping and research quarters Foale immediately abandoned the damaged module and slammed shut a hatch sealing off the leaking Spektr Spektr depressurized completely and later the entire space station suffered a slight depressurization When the collision occurred Mir cosmonaut Vasili V Tsibliyev was controlling the Progress manually attempting to re-dock the craft to test the updated manual-control system The Progress had already docked with Mir a few days earlier when the crew had unloaded cargo and filled the craftrsquos hold with trash In addition to damaging Mir the collision temporarily jarred the station off its normal flying orbit Although the crew quickly remedied this problem the three-man team had to work inside a darkened partially powered station Russian and American space officials estimated that Mir had lost half of its operating power from the collision The collision heightened tensions between Russian and American space officials as questions mounted about the safety of the crew aboard the failing space station US House Committee on Science and Technology Chairperson F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) met with NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin urging NASA not to send American astronauts to Mir until the stationrsquos safety standards had improved significantly Yuri N Koptev Director General of the Russian Space Agency responded angrily to Sensenbrennerrsquos suggestion272

26 June Vladimir Lobachyov head of Russian Mission Control explained to reporters that the collision of the robotic cargo craft Progress with the Mir space station had probably punctured one of the space stationrsquos solar batteries damaging Mirrsquos power supply The crew of the damaged Mir

271 U S Air Force Headquarters The Roswell Report Case Closed (Washington DC 1997) Associated Press ldquoAir Force Says Dummies Used in Parachute Tests Were Mistaken for Aliensrdquo 24 June 1997 Richard Leiby ldquoAlien Autopsyrdquo Washington Post 25 June 1997 272 Michael R Gordon ldquoRussian Space Station Damaged in Collision with a Cargo Vesselrdquo New York Times 26 June 1997 Kathy Sawyer ldquoDocking Crash Cripples Mir Space Stationrdquo Washington Post 26 June 1997 Associated Press ldquoRussians Slow To Announce Mir Crash but More Forthcoming than in Pastrdquo 25 David Hoffman ldquoUS Questions on Mirrsquos Safety Anger Russiardquo Washington Post 27 June 1997 Paul Hoversten ldquoFuture of US-Russian Mission Shakyrdquo USA Today 26 June 1997

78


turned the space station to face directly toward the Sun so that Mir would get the jolt of energy necessary to boost its solar-power supply273

27 June NASArsquos Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft engaged in a high-speed flyby of asteroid 253 Mathilde capturing startlingly clear images of the huge space rock Scientists had discovered Mathilde more than 100 years ago but until the successful NEAR mission they had been unable to take useful pictures of the 33-mile-around (53-kilometer-around) asteroid NEAR Mission Director Robert W Farquhar of the Applied Physics Laboratory praised the mission as ldquoone of the most successful flybys of all timerdquo In the color images the asteroid resembled a massive gray potato with deep gashes scarring its surface Some of the craters on the asteroid were large enough to ldquoswallow the District of Columbiardquo according to one scientist who viewed the images as they were taken The pictures also revealed that the rock was smaller than scientists had previously estimated and that it reflected only 3 percent of the Sunrsquos light making it twice as dark as a piece of charcoal Scientists hoped that the new data might reveal why the asteroid rotates at the extremely slow rate of one rotation every 174 days NEARrsquos multispectral imager took the pictures using very little of the spacecraftrsquos solar-based power a significant accomplishment since NEAR was approximately 186 million miles (300 million kilometers) from the Sun when it captured the images274

JULY 1997

1 July Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida Commander James D Halsell Jr called Mission STS-94 a ldquoonce-in-a-career opportunityrdquo for the seven-person crew the same crew that had embarked upon Mission STS-83 in April 1997 NASA had cut short Mission STS-83 because of a fuel cell problem The reflight gave NASA officials and the Shuttle crew a chance to undertake the experiments planned for the original mission including testing hardware and procedures planned for the International Space Station NASA was able to launch Columbia just 84 days after bringing the Shuttle home at a cost of about 20 percent of the amount needed to set off a new Shuttle mission The crew planned to carry out the original 33 experiments over the course of the 16-day science mission Mission STS-94 NASA clarified involved the same vehicle crew Microgravity Science Laboratory payload and experiment schedule as the recalled mission The mission was the first in the 36-year history of unpiloted spaceflight in which the same crew flew together in space more than once275

2 July

273 Reuters ldquoMir Crew Turns to Sun To Help Damaged Space Stationrdquo 26 June 1997 274 NASA ldquoAsteroid Mathilde Reveals Her Dark Pastrdquo news release 97-147 30 June 1997 Associated Press ldquoSpacecraft Sends Astonishing Images of Asteroidrdquo 27 June 1997 Associated Press ldquoIn Close Flyby Spacecraft Sends Back Photos of Battered Asteroidrdquo 1 July 1997 275 NASA ldquoColumbia and Crew Ready for Reflight of Microgravity Sciences Laboratory-1 Payload on Mission STS-94rdquo news release J97-21 June 1997 William Harwood ldquoShuttle Begins Second Attempt at Missionrdquo Washington Post 2 July 1997 Warren Leary ldquoShuttle Roars Aloft To Complete Mission Interrupted in Aprilrdquo New York Times 2 July 1997 Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttle Blasts Off on Repeat Science Missionrdquo 1 July 1997

79


NASA announced its plan to compensate for the failure of Japanrsquos Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) with NASArsquos weather instruments aboard admitting that the loss of the spacecraft was ldquoa real blow to NASArsquos science programrdquo Japanrsquos National Space Development Agency (NASDA) had declared the ADEOS lost on 30 June 1997 NASA scientists had been using the satellite to gather data about weather patterns and climate change NASA resolutely pledged to continue working with NASDA despite the setback highlighting plans to send up a second scatterometer aboard ADEOS II in 1999 Michael B Mann Deputy Associate Administrator of the Mission to Planet Earth Strategic Enterprise qualified the failure saying ldquoThe collaboration between NASDA and NASA on this mission has been outstanding space operations is a risky business those of us involved in the business strive to limit the risk but sometimes mishaps do occurrdquo276

4 July NASA successfully landed the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft on Mars exactly seven months after its launch from Earth Project managers at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) called the landing ldquonear perfectrdquo celebrating the beginning of the ldquosecond era in the exploration of Marsrdquo The Mars Pathfinder Mission was the first to attempt a planetary landing on initial orbit and Pathfinderrsquos safe landing followed a journey in which the spacecraft traveled at speeds of up to 16600 miles (26800 kilometers) per hour Although NASA made its first successful flyby of Mars in 1965 in recent years it had taken a new approach to exploring the Red Planet NASA achieved the development and deployment of Mars Pathfinder for US$266 million a bargain compared to the US$1 billion cost of the failed Mars Observer Because of its tightening budget NASA had adopted a course of planning several simple but targeted excursions using low-cost spacecraft rather than mounting a few complex and expensive missions Pathfinder landed almost exactly at the point aimed for and immediately transmitted signals back to Earth announcing its safe landing Officials at JPL noticed a slight complication when early images revealed that some of the airbags used to cushion the craftrsquos landing had bunched up around the door that Sojourner⎯the rover set to explore the planet⎯would use to exit Pathfinder NASArsquos engineers clarified however that the temporary problem would not compromise the roverrsquos planned exploration277

5 July Russia launched Progress M35 a supply spacecraft headed for Mir filled with repair equipment needed to fix problems caused by the crash of another Progress cargo craft and to restore full power to the space station According to Russian space officials repairs would entail a lengthy spacewalk The repair tasks appeared so daunting that the Russian Space Agency engineers pushed back the date of the work to allow the Mir cosmonauts more time to train C Michael Foale the American astronaut aboard Mir was responsible for operating the Soyuz spacecraft

276 NASA ldquoNASArsquos Earth Science Program Adjusts to Loss of Data from Japanese ADEOS Satelliterdquo news release 97-149 2 July 1997 277 John Noble Wilford ldquoLanding Called Near Perfect by NASArdquo New York Times 5 July 1997 John Noble Wilford ldquoSpacecraft Lands Today on the Planet of Dreamsrdquo New York Times 4 July 1997 Tony Knight ldquoPathfinder Zeroes in on Red Planetrdquo Los Angeles Daily News 4 July 1997 NASA Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 1996 Activities (Washington DC 1997) p 3

80


docked at the station so that in the event of a problem the crew would be able to make a safe return to Earth278

6 July Sojourner the roving vehicle carried to Mars aboard Pathfinder began prospecting the surface of the Red Planet approximately two days after Pathfinderrsquos safe landing NASA engineers and enthralled scientists described the scene of the six-wheeled microwave-sized Sojourner slowly descending the ramp of Pathfinder as similar to Neil A Armstrongrsquos ldquogiant leaprdquo in 1969 Richard A Cook managing the mission from JPL set off a raucous celebration of NASA engineers when he announced ldquoThe rover is on the surface of Mars Wersquove got some great images back and all the scientists are in heavenrdquo Weather reports gathered by the Pathfinder reported that Sojourner was working in temperatures as high as 8deg below 0degF (-22degC) as well as in wind and dust storms Sojourner named for black abolitionist Sojourner Truth headed for a dark rock near Pathfinder as its first object of close study NASA scientists who had named the rock Barnacle Bill because of its craggy appearance used similarly whimsical terms to keep track of the various geological objects studied by Sojourner Sojournerrsquos success after some minor complication upon landing encouraged mission scientists and drew wide acclaim from the media Scientists began to speculate almost immediately about whether the mission could possibly confirm or deny the existence of life on the planet279

7 July NASArsquos AeroVironment Pathfinder⎯distinct from Mars Pathfinder⎯broke the record for highest-flying propeller-powered aircraft in a flight from the US Navyrsquos Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai Hawaii After climbing for nearly 7 hours AeroVironment Pathfinder reached its record altitude maintaining its height for about 13 minutes Even at its peak distance from Earth a span of more than 67 nautical miles (124 kilometers) AeroVironment Pathfinder transmitted data without any problems The successful test was part of the Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology Program at NASArsquos Dryden Flight Research Center280

9 July NASA reported receiving 265 million hits on its Web site during the four days following Mars Pathfinderrsquos landing In response to what some observers called the ldquobiggest event in computer network historyrdquo NASA buttressed its own computers with donated equipment from corporate sponsors so that the government site could handle the high volume of viewers The Internet statistics validated the widespread popularity of the mission to Mars The CNN network dedicated nearly half of its programming to the Pathfinder story on the day of the Mars landing doubling its network ratings Entrepreneurs sold a variety of Mars- and Pathfinder-themed products and visitors jammed the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC USA

278 Michael R Gordan ldquoRussia Launches Supply Craft To Repair the Damaged Mir Space Stationrdquo New York Times 6 July 1997 279 John Noble Wilford ldquoOn the Surface of Mars Sojourner Rolls to Workrdquo New York Times 7 July 1997 Knight-Ridder News Service ldquoData from Mars Indicate It Could Have Supported Liferdquo 7 July 1997 Peter N Spotts ldquoTiny Land Rover Begins Relaying Detailed Data About Surface of Red Planetrdquo Christian Science Monitor 7 July 1997 280 Michael A Dornheim ldquoPathfinder Aircraft Hits 71500 Ftrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 147 no 3 (21 July 1997) 40 NASA ldquoSolar-Powered Pathfinder Sets New Record Prepares To Monitor Deforestation of Hawaiian Islandrdquo news release 97-153 14 July 1997

81


Today summed up the success of the Mars Pathfinder Mission ldquoNASArsquos successful landing on the Red Planet has set off a Marsfest on the blue onerdquo281

NASA announced the retirement of veteran astronaut Jeffrey A Hoffman who had flown on five Shuttle missions Hoffman planned to continue his NASA service becoming NASArsquos European representative in Paris Hoffman was one of the four astronauts to take part in the spacewalking mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 1993 In total Hoffman had spent more than 1200 hours in space and traveled more than 215 million miles (35 million kilometers)282

The crew aboard Space Shuttle Columbia lit more than 200 small fires testing the flammability of dozens of gases and materials The experiments took place under the direction of Paul D Ronney a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Southern California Ronney explained that the experiments had as much application for Earth as for space According to Ronney the weaker the flame in spacersquos weightless environment the cleaner its fuel would burn on Earth The astronauts found that without the effect of gravity the flames often formed the shape of a ball and heat did not rise The experiments created some attention for Mission STSshy94 largely overshadowed by the success of the Pathfinder mission to Mars283

14 July Routine medical testing of the crew aboard Mir revealed that the Russian commander of the space station Vasili V Tsibliyev had an irregular heartbeat and according to Russian Mission Control a problem with his ldquocardiovascular systemrdquo The tests indicating that Tsibliyev was overtired and suffering from stress did not surprise space officials considering his traumatic experience of late June when a cargo craft had crashed into Mir Tsibliyev reported that he had felt ldquoirregularitiesrdquo while he was exercising and when he was trying to sleep The news of crew health problems complicated further the arduous repair plan A day after learning of Tsibliyevrsquos test results Russian officials proposed that US astronaut C Michael Foale take Tsibliyevrsquos place in the repair spacewalk NASA subsequently deliberated over the request before granting Foale permission to participate Ultimately however Russian Mission Control decided not to allow Mirrsquos exhausted crew to perform the tasks Instead Mission Control planned for the replacement crew scheduled to arrive in August 1997 to make the repairs The response to the latest of Mirrsquos challenges demonstrated an increasingly dependent and trusting partnership between the Russian and American space agencies During the Soviet-led race for space few could have imagined Russian officials asking for the aid of an American crew member in a time of crisis284

281 NASA ldquoPathfinder Gets Hit Hard on the Internetrdquo news release I97-8 9 July 1997 Martha T Moore ldquoMars Mania Invades Earthrdquo USA Today 9 July 1997 Associated Press ldquolsquoMars Liversquo Draws Millions to Web Siterdquo 9 July 1997 United Press International ldquoMars Tops Internet Hit Listrdquo 8 July 1997 282 NASA ldquoJeff Hoffman Retires from Astronaut Corpsrdquo new release 97-151 9 July 1997 283 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Tests of Tiny Fires Spur Delightrdquo 9 July 1997 Wayne Tompkins ldquoColumbia Crew Ready for Hot Time in Spacerdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 4 July 1997 284 Paul Hoversten ldquoLatest Mir Trouble Commanderrsquos Heartrdquo USA Today 15 July 1997 Michael Gordon ldquoRussians Suggest American Take On Mir Repair Taskrdquo New York Times 16 July 1997 Associated Press ldquoCommander of Russian Space Station Shows Heart Irregularitiesrdquo 14 July 1997 Reuters ldquoTests on Mir Commander Show Cardiovascular Problemrdquo 14 July 1997 Associated Press ldquoBacks to the Wall Russians Ask for Help from American Astronautrdquo 15 July 1997 Reuters ldquoNASA Approves Mir Spacewalk Training for Foalerdquo 17 July 1997 New York Times ldquoA Rescue Assignment for NASArdquo editorial 17 July 1997 Associated Press ldquoMir Crew Gets Disappointing News Next Crew To Do Key Repairsrdquo 19 July 1997

82


15 July Vice President Albert A Gore Jr US Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney E Slater and NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin joined in leading an aviation safety event at Dulles International Airport in Virginia NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had invited media representatives and interested spectators to the event to observe demonstrations of the new technologies that the agencies had developed to improve the safety of flying aboard commercial private and government aircraft NASA made available one of its Boeing B-757 research aircraft providing hands-on demonstrations of the new techniques and technologies produced by NASArsquos and the FAArsquos Task Force on Aviation Safety285

16 July As Mars Pathfinder and its surveyor Sojourner triumphantly explored the surface of Mars NASA named as Software of the Year the Dynamics Algorithms for Real-Time Simulation (DARTS) software⎯a program used on the Pathfinder mission Abhinandan Jain Guillermo Rodriguez and Guy K Man of JPL had created the software to provide real-time simulations to test other software and hardware DARTS allowed NASA mission managers to test procedures in a cost-effective manner286

17 July Space Shuttle Columbia landed safely at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida just after sunrise returning its seven-person crew to Earth The landing marked the conclusion of a successful 16shyday mission during which the astronauts completed 33 laboratory experiments The low-cost mission was the first reflight in NASArsquos history concluding the research agenda planned for the April 1997 mission that NASA had terminated as a safety precaution Although the press coverage of events on Mars and Mir had overshadowed the Columbia crewrsquos efforts NASA Mission Manager Teresa B Vanhooser stated confidently that scientific journals would give the mission due respect287

25 July Two Yemeni men filed a lawsuit against NASA claiming that NASA had committed trespassing violations when it landed Pathfinder on Mars The men claimed that their ancient ancestors had deeded the planet to them as an inheritance requesting that Yemenrsquos prosecutor-general bring US Ambassador David G Newton to court to stop the violation Although no legal restitution was expected the lawsuit highlighted the excitement surrounding NASArsquos Mars mission and the widespread interest in the Red Planetrsquos exploration288

30 July Astronomers using the HST and the W M Keck Observatory in Hawaii announced the discovery of the most distant object ever observed from Earth The discovery team comprised

285 NASA ldquoVice President To Showcase Aviation Safety Technologies Developed by NASA and FAArdquo news release N97-47 14 July 1997 286 NASA ldquoSoftware Used on Mars Pathfinder Wins NASArsquos Software of the Year Awardrdquo news release 97-154 16 July 1997 287 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Returns Full of Research Informationrdquo 17 July 1997 288 Reuters ldquoGet Off Our Planet Yemeni Men Tell USrdquo 25 July 1997

83


researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the University of California at Santa Cruz The scientistsrsquo calculations indicated that the distant light they had discovered was an infant galaxy approximately 13 billion light-years from Earth Formally named Red Arc in CL1358-62 the discovery gave astronomers a glimpse into the universe as it had existed when only 7 percent of its present age Lead researcher Garth D Illingworth described the images as ldquoa pathfinder for deciphering what is happening in young galaxiesrdquo289

AUGUST 1997

1 August Frank L Culbertson Jr NASArsquos Manager for the Space ShuttlendashMir research program announced that in the future NASA would likely require astronauts to have training in spacewalking The announcement coincided with reports in the New York Times and other US newspapers that David A Wolf had replaced astronaut Wendy B Lawrence as the next NASA representative aboard Mir NASA had replaced Lawrence because of her small stature At 5 feet 3 inches (16 meters) tall she was too small to fit into the bulky Russian Orlan spacesuits worn on Mir In addition she had received no training in spacewalking Previously NASA had planned for Wolf to replace Lawrence aboard Mir following her research stint NASA and the Russian Space Agency addressed the sensitive issue of replacing Lawrence because of her size explaining the need for flexibility aboard Mir during significant repairs to the station Lawrence reacted professionally despite the disappointment of her replacement less than two months before her planned once-in-a-career mission290

NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin addressed the Experimental Aircraft Association fly-in convention outlining NASArsquos vision to ldquorevitalize general aviationrdquo Goldin boldly predicted that the US aviation industry would be able to deliver 10000 aircraft annually within 10 years and 20000 annually within 20 years The fly-in convention featuring flyovers by NASArsquos SRshy71 had the theme ldquoBoomers Turn 50rdquo celebrating both the 50th anniversary of the US Air Force and that of the first breaking of the sound barrier The Association announced the winner of the National General Aviation Design Competition sponsored by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) a competition encouraging university engineering students to focus on the aviation industry The conference also featured the unveiling of the new FAA flight-training curricula as well as a national aviation safety initiative291

2 August The Rasmussen Research Group reported that seven out of 10 Americans had seen at least one image of Mars obtained through the Mars Pathfinder Mission denoting a remarkable level of public awareness of NASArsquos mission to the Red Planet The researchers also reported that nearly half of all Americans believed that an American would land on Mars within 10 years Despite the

289 Malcolm W Browne ldquoAstronomers Discover Most Distant Objectrdquo New York Times 31 July 1997 290 Warren E Leary ldquoFuture Astronauts Must Walk Before They Flyrdquo New York Times 1 August 1997 Todd Halverson ldquoMir Prerequisite Spacewalkingrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 1 August 1997 United Press International ldquoUS Russia Cite Logic of Replacing Female Astronautrdquo 1 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoNASA Decision To Replace Astronaut Difficult but Necessaryrdquo 31 July 1997 291 NASA ldquoNASA To Showcase New Activities at Upcoming Aircraft Fly-In Conventionrdquo news release N97-51 25 July 1997

84


widespread interest and optimism regarding the project only 41 percent of those polled saw merit in the mission292

5 August The Russian Soyuz spacecraft lifted off from Kazakhstan carrying cosmonauts Anatoly Y Solovyev and Pavel V Vinogradov on a mission to repair the disabled Mir space station Russian space officials tasked the two men with restoring power to Mir after the 25 June collision with a cargo craft cut by half the orbiting research centerrsquos energy Regarding the importance of the mission some observers of Russian space activity went so far as to say that the countryrsquos piloted space program depended on Solovyev and Vinogradovrsquos success293

During the terminal countdown of a demonstration test of the Titan IV-B rocket designed for the Cassini mission to Saturn engineers noticed liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen leaking from the Centaur stage of the rocket NASA had scheduled Cassinirsquos launch for early October 1997 NASA officials delayed the launch until they could complete further tests offering no immediate estimate of how long that might take Interested scientists and engineers however predicted that the problem could postpone the mission by months or even years Under the missionrsquos original timetable NASA had expected Cassini to launch in October 1997 reaching Saturn in July 2004 Because of the length of the journey from Earth to Saturn the scientific community expected that NASA would find it difficult to reschedule the flight Moreover experts warned that the alignment of planets providing an ideal launch date such as that in October 1997 would not occur again for 12 to 14 years At US$32 billion Cassini was one of the last of NASArsquos high-stake multibillion-dollar missions drawing considerable attention during the climate of steady cost reductions that characterized the 1990s294

7 August A relief crew of two Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Y Solovyev and Pavel V Vinogradov arrived at Mir to begin repair work on the damaged space station On 25 June 1997 Mir had suffered its worst accident when a robotic supply craft attempting to dock pierced the exterior of one of its research modules The arriving crew carrying tools and equipment also had difficulty docking As Soyuz approached Mir its autonomic docking system failed forcing Solovyev to override the system and pull Soyuz back Solovyev then successfully docked the relief vehicle using manual controls The crew planned to repair Mirrsquos failing oxygen-generating system before reconnecting the damaged research module to the rest of the station Both NASA and the Russian Space Agency stressed that Mir had sufficient oxygen reserves in the event that the oxygen generator failed altogether After repairing the oxygen system and the research module the new crew planned to make as many as six spacewalks to repair the external damage caused by the June collision Cosmonaut Solovyev brought significant experience to the mission he had resided on Mir during four earlier missions spending a total of 456 days in space NASA

292 Mark Carreau ldquoMars Trip a Monster Summer Hitrdquo Houston Chronicle 2 August 1997 293 Associated Press ldquo2 Russians Blast Off on Mir Repair Missionrdquo 6 August 1997 294 NASA ldquoCountdown Test Reveals Fuel Leaks on Cassini Mission Centaur Upper Stagerdquo 7 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoRocket Leak Could Postpone Landing on Saturn by Yearsrdquo 8 August 1997

85


planned for British-born US astronaut C Michael Foale to remain on Mir although the Russian Space Agency was replacing its crew aboard the space station295

Shuttle Discovery Mission STS-85 launched carrying Commander Curtis L Brown Jr Pilot Kent V Rominger and astronauts N Jan Davis Robert L Curbeam Jr Stephen K Robinson and Canadian Bjarni V Tryggvason who planned to conduct studies on Earthrsquos ozone layer and to test a newly engineered robotic arm The test on the small robotic arm a prototype of the one planned for the International Space Station (ISS) continued NASArsquos trend of using Shuttle missions to prepare for the much-anticipated space station Discovery also carried a 7000-pound (3200-kilogram) German satellite which would orbit freely for most of the10-day mission gathering data on the declining ozone layer Brown emphasized the international flavor of the crew and cargo saying ldquoone word for our mission would be diversityrdquo With this mission its 23rd

flight Discovery tied with Columbia for the most missions by a single vehicle296

8 August After exceeding even the most optimistic predictions made during its primary mission the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft concluded its initial research maneuvers and began extended operations The initial mission had returned to Earth 12 gigabits of data and more than 9000 images of the Martian landscape Project Manager of the Mars Pathfinder Mission Brian Muirhead said that the mission had not only had gathered an impressive amount of data but also validated NASArsquos new approach to exploring space ldquoThis mission demonstrated a reliable and low-cost system for placing science payloads on the surface of Marsrdquo he stated ldquoWersquove validated NASArsquos commitment to low-cost planetary explorationrdquo After completing the planned 30-day mission and traveling 171 feet (52 meters) across Marsrsquos landscape the rover Sojourner remained in excellent condition Operators gave Sojourner a two-day rest period to recharge its battery before it began an extended exploration of the planet297

9 August As the two cosmonauts worked to repair the failing Mir space station President Boris N Yeltsin allowed the Russian government to borrow US$100 million from foreign banks giving the Russian Space Agency an infusion of capital Yeltsin announced the decision after touring the construction facilities where Russia planned to build its contributions to the ISS The Russian Space Agencyrsquos cash-flow problems had resulted in construction delays and failure to meet deadlines postponing the completion of the entire ISS298

After widespread speculation concerning the possibility of an indefinite delay of the Cassini Mission to Saturn NASA announced that it would be able to repair a fuel leak in the spacecraft

295 Baltimore Sun (MD) ldquoRelief Team Reaches Crippled Mir Space Stationrdquo 8 August 1997 Reuters ldquoTwo Cosmonauts Blast Off on Mission To Repair Mirrdquo 6 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoRussians Rocket To Repair Stationrdquo 6 August 1997 Reuters ldquoNew Crew Faces Hydra of Woes on Mir Space Stationrdquo 5 August 1997 296 NASA ldquoAugust 7 Selected for STS-85 Space Shuttle Mission Launchrdquo news release 97-159 24 July 1997 Marcia Dunn ldquoShuttle Blasts Off on Ozone Studyrdquo USA Today 8 August 1997 Mark Carreau ldquoDiscovery Mission Plans Tests with International Flairrdquo Houston Chronicle 4 August 1997 297 NASA ldquoMars Pathfinder Results Generating New Picture of Mars as Mission Moves into Extended Operationrdquo news release 97-174 8 August 1997 Los Angeles Times ldquoMars Mission lsquo100 Percent Successrsquo NASA Saysrdquo Los Angeles Times 9 August 1997 298 Associated Press ldquoGovernment Will Borrow $100 Million for Space Agencyrdquo 9 August 1997

86


in time to meet an October 1997 launch date NASA had enlisted US Air Force engineers to make the repairs The spacecraftrsquos need for repairs increased the tension surrounding the ambitious and expensive mission Lieutenant Ken Hoffman of the US Air Force who supervised the repairs attempted to reassure the public that the problem was ldquoa correctable conditionrdquo Nevertheless opponents of the mission⎯particularly those opposed to the spacecraftrsquos use of radioactive plutonium⎯worried that the rocketrsquos launch might release hazardous materials Michio Kaku a City University of New York physics professor said that despite NASArsquos announcement that it could quickly correct the problem the leak was ldquojust one more indication that NASA does not have things under controlrdquo299

10 August Astronauts aboard Shuttle Discovery successfully tested a new robotic arm considerably smaller than Discoveryrsquos massive 50-foot (15-meter) crane intended for tasks of higher precision Discoveryrsquos crew used the arm to unlock a cargo bay door and lift a small box NASA had engineered the Japanese-made robotic arm for US$100 million expecting that it would eventually serve astronauts aboard the ISS Of the robotic armrsquos test performance astronaut Stephen K Robinson stated simply ldquoit operated beautifullyrdquo300

13 August NASA and the Boeing Company unveiled a new stitching machine that experts believed would change the method of fabricating aircraft wing structures The demonstration took place at Boeing Stitched Composites Development Center in Huntington Beach California The project team of engineers had replaced the large metal structures used in airplanes with strong but light composite materials By reducing the weight of an airplane engineers hoped to decrease fuel usage with the eventual result of cost savings for consumers Rather than using rivets to hold together an airplanersquos wings the NASA-developed stitching machine sewed together precut fabric layers in the shape of a wing Next the machine added braided stiffener materials to the wing before setting the wing skeleton with resin The process created a wing as strong as one built with metal structures but at a fraction of the weight301

14 August Two Russian Space Agency cosmonauts Vasili V Tsibliyev and Alexander I Lazutkin returned to Earth after spending more than six months aboard the Mir space station The New York Times echoed the feelings of many in the space community calling the six months the Russians had spent in space ldquosix of the least glorious months in the history of manned space flightrdquo During their departure from Mir Tsibliyev and Lazutkin continued to experience the same type of problem that had characterized their tenure on board the space station The two cosmonauts scheduled to disengage from Mir in the Soyuz spacecraft and then to circle the space station cancelled the exercise because of concern that the two spacecraft would collide After the cosmonauts landed in the desert of Kazakhstan Tsibliyev recounted to an international press corps the difficult mission that he and Lazutkin had endured aboard Mir remarking that the two cosmonauts should not become the scapegoats for Russiarsquos problems in space The collision

299 Robyn Suriano ldquoCassini Wonrsquot Be Delayedrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 9 August 1997 300Associated Press ldquoAstronauts Aboard Discovery Test New Japanese Robot Armrdquo 9 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Tests a Robot Built To Spacewalkrdquo 11 August 1997 301 NASA ldquoNew Manufacturing Method Could Lower Air Travel Costsrdquo news release 97-176 13 August 1997

87


between the Progress cargo craft and Mir had occurred during the two menrsquos tenure and shortly thereafter doctors had diagnosed Tsibliyevrsquos irregular heartbeat Space officials planned extensive debriefings for the two men Meanwhile President Boris N Yeltsin congratulated the cosmonauts for their ldquopersistence courage and heroismrdquo in spite of his having claimed only days earlier that the recent problems with Mir were solely the result of human error302

Abe Silverstein received the Guggenheim Medal honoring his significant contributions to the advancement of flight Silversteinrsquos 40-year career at NASA had included a period as the Director of Lewis Research Center The citation praised him for his leadership in the Mercury and Gemini programs and for ldquoadvancing technology of aircraft and propulsion performancerdquo as well as crediting him with proposing the name ldquoApollordquo for the lunar landing mission Previous winners of the Guggenheim Medal included Orville Wright William E Boeing and Charles A Lindbergh303

18 August Mirrsquos main computer failed during a cargo craft docking setting the Russian space station adrift The malfunction postponed a planned spacewalk to begin repairs to Mir forcing the crew to turn its attention to reorienting the space station toward the Sun The crew shut down most of Mirrsquos operating systems to conserve power304

19 August Shuttle Discovery returned to Earth landing at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida after a 12-day mission devoted to environmental research The crew hoped that the atmospheric data gathered during the mission would help scientists understand the ozone damage and climate change affecting Earth305

25 August NASA launched an unpiloted Delta rocket carrying the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) a US$100 million solar-observatory satellite bound on a 1 million-mile (16 million-kilometer) journey The launch took place one day later than expected because on the original launch date a commercial fishing boat had come within range of the launch danger zone Scientists launched ACE toward an imaginary point 1 million miles (16 million kilometers) from Earth and 92 million miles (148 million kilometers) from the Sun a point at which scientists believe that the gravity of the Earth and Sun balance each other NASA planned for ACE to orbit for as long as five years analyzing particles streaming from the Sun In keeping with NASArsquos focus on improved efficiency NASA engineers collaborated with the Boeing Company to build ACE and launch the mission at a cost of US$200 million⎯more than US$30 million under budget306

302 Daniel Williams ldquoCosmonauts Return Safely from Spacerdquo Washington Post 15 August 1997 Michael Spencer ldquoTroubled Mirrsquos Crew Leaves Landing Safely in Kazakhstanrdquo New York Times 15 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoMir Crew Returns to Earth Safely but to Many Questionsrdquo 14 August 1997 303 NASA ldquoFormer NASA Official Receives Guggenheim Medalrdquo news release 97-177 14 August 1997 304 Shannon Tangonan ldquoComputer Shutdown Sends Mir Adriftrdquo USA Today 19 August 1997 Michael Specter ldquoComputer Failure on the Mir Sends It Out of Controlrdquo New York Times 19 August 1997 305 Mark Carreau ldquoWersquore Very Very Happy Shuttle Crew Says of Flightrdquo Houston Chronicle 20 August 1997

88


SEPTEMBER 1997

2 September Astronaut F Story Musgrave retired from NASA after 30 years of service and six Shuttle flights During his more than 1200 hours in space Musgrave had flown on the first voyage of Challenger and had been a member of the first crew to service the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Flying aboard STS-80 in 1996 Musgrave became the oldest person to fly in space NASA Director of Flight Crew Operations David C Leestma said of Musgrave ldquothroughout the Shuttle program from its earliest stages to the present Story has been instrumental in developing the techniques crew members use to perform spacewalksrdquo307

3 September The embattled effort to launch the Cassini spacecraft suffered a setback when NASA engineers discovered ripped insulation in its Huygens probe while the craft was sitting on the launchpad in Cape Canaveral Florida Investigators concluded that a ground-air-conditioner malfunction had caused the tears The possibility of a launch delay even for only a few days concerned scientists because Saturn was moving farther and farther from Earth A longer journey to Saturn would require the spacecraft to use more fuel for transport leaving less for scientific exploration The Cassini Mission to Saturn had received significant public criticism because 72 pounds (33 kilograms) of plutonium⎯the largest amount of radioactive material ever rocketed into space⎯powered the probe Although protesters had organized marches and petitioned government officials to stop the launch NASA spokesperson Douglas Isbell had pointed out NASArsquos perfect record of using nuclear fuel safely Scientists from the European Space Agency and NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) had planned and engineered the building of the 23rd nuclear-powered Cassini for the 11-year mission Experts from both sides of the Atlantic were optimistic that engineers would repair the insulation damage quickly308

4 September Using the HST astronomers from a number of universities and other institutions reported in Science that they had discovered a massive crater on the asteroid Vesta Scientists had long suspected that the asteroid might have a large crater because Vesta is the ldquoparent bodyrdquo of many smaller asteroids suggesting that a significant collision once occurred on Vesta However even with hints of such a history the sheer size of Vestarsquos crater surprised the observers Measuring 285 miles (469 kilometers) across the crater was nearly equal to Vestarsquos 330-mile (531shykilometer) diameter Scientists had waited for the asteroid to move closer to Earth so that they could examine its surface closely In May 1996 Vesta had moved within 110 million miles (177 million kilometers) of Earth its closest approach in a decade The science team stated further

306 Associated Press ldquoAfter 1-Day Delay NASA Launches Bargain-Priced Solar Observatoryrdquo 25 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoLaunch Delayed by Errant Shrimpersrdquo 25 August 1997 307 NASA ldquoAstronaut Story Musgrave Retires from NASArdquo news release 97-188 2 September 1997 308 John Noble Wilford ldquoDelay Expected for Spacecraft Going to Saturnrdquo New York Times 4 September 1997 John Kennedy and Seth Borenstein ldquoNuclear Launch Draws Protestrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 30 August 1997 Sharon K Spry ldquoDanger of Cassini Accident Too Greatrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 31 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoMishap May Delay Mission to Saturnrdquo 4 September 1997

89


that unveiling Vestarsquos complexion and history had yielded new insights into the effects of ldquoa large impact on a small objectrdquo309

6 September British-born US astronaut C Michael Foale and Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Y Solovyev conducted a 6-hour spacewalk outside the Mir space station to investigate further the damage caused by the June 1997 collision with a robotic supply craft However they were unable to find the puncture that space officials believed Mir had sustained The exercise was only the second joint spacewalk of a US astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut During the excursion Foale used a crane to hoist Solovyev toward the damaged region of the craft The two crew members endured temperatures ranging from 200degF (93degC) when Mir was in the sunlight to -150degF (-101degC) when it passed into the darkness Although Foale had spent many hours preparing for the spacewalk learning how to maneuver in the heavy Russian spacesuit he still exercised extreme caution to avoid snagging the suit on of Mirrsquos jagged edges NASA had approved Foalersquos participation in the spacewalk only shortly before it occurred310

9 September Mars Global Surveyor passed a critical test on its journey toward the Red Planet when it successfully opened valves allowing high-pressure rocket propellant to enter its fuel lines The same task had thwarted the 1993 Mars Observer at a similar juncture during its trip to Mars Mars Global Surveyor had traveled for 10 months and for more than 435 million miles (700 million kilometers) to reach Mars According to Glenn E Cunningham of NASArsquos JPL the process of transforming Global Surveyor from a high-speed-travel spacecraft into a slow-moving craft subject to Marsrsquos gravitational pull was ldquoa nail-biterrdquo Without the powerful propellant the transition could not occur which would have ended any hope of the missionrsquos gathering data With the opening of the valves complete NASA scientists were optimistic that the US$250 million probe would descend slowly into a tight orbit of Mars yielding new information about the planet311

10 September Software magnate James W Benson announced the formation of SpaceDev a new company focused on launching a robotic craft to an asteroid Benson argued that space ldquois a place not a government projectrdquo claiming that his company would gather new scientific data for a fraction of the money NASA spent annually on space exploration Specifically Benson stated that his Near Earth Asteroid Prospector would land on an asteroid gathering images and scientific readings He estimated that his company could complete such a feat for under US$50 million about US$200 million less than NASArsquos budget for a comparable mission Benson and SpaceDev entered the realm of space exploration with overtly capitalist intentions Benson planned to sell the data the company gathered to NASA and to universities for profit

309 Peter C Thomas et al ldquoImpact Excavation on Asteroid 4 Vesta Hubble Space Telescope Resultsrdquo Science 277 no 5331 (5 September 1997) 1492minus1495 NASA ldquoHubble Reveals Huge Crater on the Surface of the Asteroid Vestardquo news release 97-191 4 September 1997 310 Michael R Gordon ldquoAstronauts Fail To Locate a Puncture in Crippled Mirrdquo New York Times 7 September 1997 Michael Gordon ldquoRussian and American Astronauts Begin Space Walkrdquo New York Times 6 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoUS Astronaut Gets NASArsquos Approval for Space Walk Outside Mirrdquo 5 September 1997 311 Paul Hoversten ldquoMars Surveyor Passes Key Testrdquo USA Today 10 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoCraft Bound for Mars Clears Crucial Hurdlerdquo 10 September 1997

90


Additionally SpaceDev consultants estimated that asteroids might contain significant deposits of gold and other precious metals worth US$1ndash4 trillion which would become the property of whoever succeeded in accessing it Of his overall theory on space and science Benson clarified ldquoWhen we deliver science we expect to get paid We expect a profit We offer more science for the dollarrdquo312

11 September NASA the US Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration signed a joint memorandum of agreement providing guidelines for commercial spaceports The agreement was the culmination of a long debate over how the federal government could encourage private companies and state governments to use available federal launch sites The White House Office of Science and Technology initiative had proposed the agreement which sought to limit the regulatory steps a private company would have to take to become a launch-site operator The measure continued the federal governmentrsquos trend of encouraging private industry to explore

313space

Mars Global Surveyor fired its engine enabling Marsrsquos gravitational pull to capture it Researchers from NASArsquos JPL declared that the spacecraft had behaved exactly as planned during the crucial entry to Marsrsquos gravitational field Experts predicted that the mission would produce 700 million bits of data more than the amount acquired in all previous Mars missions combined The mapping mission continued a new era of Mars exploration for NASA involving dozens of probes surveying the planetrsquos surface and atmosphere314

12 September For the first time NASA turned over control of a satellite project to a group of non-NASA scientists placing the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) under the control of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard University Harvard scientists had designed and built the satellite but in previous NASA-university collaborations NASA had always maintained control over implementation projects that it had funded NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin said that NASA hoped the move would embolden non-NASA scientists ldquoWhat we wanted to do is get the scientists closer to their spacecraft and close to their sources of datardquo NASA intended the AXAF which had cost US$14 billion to develop to study black holes and collisions between stars and galaxies315

NASA announced that in one week engineers had completed repairs to the damaged insulation of the Huygens probe a part of the Cassini Mission to Saturn Some scientists had feared that the tears to the insulation would set back the ambitious mission indefinitely NASA engineers however had worked rapidly to disassemble the probe completely inspect the damage and make the appropriate repairs Additionally during the repair period the project had received a

312 Associated Press ldquoCompany Promotes First Private Launch to Asteroidrdquo 10 September 1997 313 NASA ldquoNASA DOD and FAA Sign Joint Agreement on Spaceports Launch Guidancerdquo news release 97-194 11 September 1997 314 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNew Visitor from Earth Poised for Mars Orbitrdquo Washington Post 11 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoEverything lsquoPerfectrsquo as Surveyor Craft in Countdown to Mars Orbitrdquo 11 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoMars Global Surveyorrdquo 12 September 1997 315 Jules Crittenden ldquoX-ray Tour of the Universe To Begin in Cambridge Labrdquo Boston Herald 13 September 1997 Peter J Howe ldquoPutting the Universe into Focusrdquo Boston Globe 13 September 1997

91


welcome voice of support from the National Space Society an independent space advocacy organization The Society had issued a statement expressing its full confidence in NASA and in the mission offsetting the protests against the missionrsquos use of nuclear fuel The National Space Society declared ldquosaying lsquonorsquo to Cassini would be saying lsquonorsquo to knowledgerdquo defending the use of nuclear power as the only safe and viable option for such a lengthy mission ldquoCassinirsquos Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) have proven their safety and capability in 23 prior missions including human missions RTGs are the only realistic option for sending probes great distances from the Sun and will certainly play a part in future human missionsrdquo316

15 September The Mir space station nearly collided with a US military satellite forcing Mirrsquos crew to prepare hastily for an emergency exit When the satellite came within 500 to 1000 yards (457 to 914 meters) of Mir US astronaut C Michael Foale and the two resident Russian cosmonauts sealed themselves in the Soyuz spacecraft so that they would be able to leave if the satellite hit the station According to NASA problems with space debris and close encounters between satellites are common but usually miles rather than yards separated the rapidly traveling spacecraft Russian space officials had taken a different approach to the situation than their American counterparts would have chosen Rather than ordering Mir to adjust its position as NASA had instructed Shuttle crews to do when debris approach Russian officials had ordered Mirrsquos crew back into Soyuz prepared to take off immediately The near miss of Mir and the satellite was not the first time that Mir had received a collision alert NASA had begun monitoring Mirrsquos path when American astronauts joined the permanent crew and reported that space debris passed within a few kilometers of Mir about once every six weeks317

Data gathered by the US-French satellite TOPEXPoseidon confirmed theories that a ldquofullshyblown El Nintildeo conditionrdquo existed in the Pacific Scientists believe that an El Nintildeo forms when steady westward-blowing trade winds weaken or reverse direction altering typical atmospheric jet-stream patterns around the world TOPEXPoseidon measured sea-surface heights and atmospheric water vapor to confirm the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationrsquos earlier prediction Based on previous El Nintildeo events scientists predicted heavy rainfall for the western United States mild winters in the east and extreme droughts in Australia Africa and Indonesia318

18 September US House Committee on Science and Technology Chairperson F James Sensenbrenner Jr (RshyWI) issued a recommendation that NASA cancel its plan to replace C Michael Foale aboard Mir with another astronaut Sensenbrenner issued the bipartisan statement with US Representative George F Brown Jr (D-CA) calling on NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin to alter the plan for the next Shuttle mission retrieving Foale without delivering another American to the station ldquoI donrsquot think the increased risk is worth the benefitrdquo Sensenbrenner told reporters after a 4-hour

316 NASA ldquoRepair Work on Cassini Huygens Probe Completed Successfullyrdquo news release 97-198 12 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoNational Space Society Adds to Support for Saturn Missionrdquo 9 September 1997 317 Edmund L Andrews ldquoSatellite Gives Mir One More Close Callrdquo New York Times 17 September 1997 Shannon Tangonan ldquoToo-Close Satellite Gives Mir a Scarerdquo USA Today 17 September 1997 318 NASA ldquoIndependent NASA Satellite Measurements Confirm El Nintildeo Is Back and Strongrdquo news release 97-200 15 September 1997

92


hearing on Mirrsquos safety issues Goldin testified that despite some setbacks NASA had no reason to suspect that sending an American astronaut to Mir was more dangerous than any other space exploration NASArsquos ShuttlendashMir Program Director Frank L Culbertson Jr responded to Sensenbrennerrsquos comments ldquoI take the safety of my friends [the astronauts] very seriously and would not send anyone on something that I would not do myselfrdquo The hearing was the first time that NASA had formally defended the safety of Mir to Congress319

22 September Vice President Albert A Gore Jr began talks with officials in Russia focused primarily on the International Space Station (ISS) economic cooperation and controlling nuclear proliferation The talks occurred in the context of a torrent of problems aboard Russiarsquos Mir space station and in Russiarsquos failures to meet its commitments to help build the ISS NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin traveled with the Vice President to participate in the space-related discussions320

25 September NASArsquos Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida for Mission STS-86 The launch took place only hours after an independent task force chaired by astronaut Lieutenant General Thomas P Stafford II reported that the Mir mission was sufficiently safe for the American astronauts Specifically the panel had determined that sending astronaut David A Wolf to replace C Michael Foale aboard the Russian space station would be reasonable as well as important to continuing scientific research NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin made the last-minute decision for the mission to go forward after weighing the panelrsquos findings against NASArsquos risk reports and the opinions of the House Committee on Science and Technology Committee Chairperson F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) had been particularly aggressive in calling for the end of the program to place astronauts aboard Mir for significant periods James D Wetherbee served as Commander of Space Shuttle Atlantis embarking on his fourth flight to space The Shuttle also carried Jean-Loup Chreacutetien of the French Space Agency Vladimir G Titov of the Russian Space Agency Pilot Michael J Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Scott E Parazynski Wendy B Lawrence and David A Wolf The Shuttle carried the SPACEHAB module in its payload with supplies for Mir research and logistical equipment aboard321

OCTOBER 1997

1 October Cosmonaut Vladimir G Titov and Mission Specialist Scott E Parazynski made a 5-hour spacewalk outside Mir to test jetpack systems and to retrieve experiments for return to Earth The two men who left Atlantis while the Shuttle remained docked with Mir became the first Russian-American team ever to conduct a spacewalk from a NASA Shuttle The joint spacewalk

319 Larry Wheeler ldquoPanel to NASA Stay Off Mirrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 19 September 1997 Knight- Ridder News Service ldquoTop Congressmen Say US Astronaut Shouldnrsquot Board Mirrdquo 19 September 1997 320 Reuters ldquoAl Gore in Moscow for Talks on Space Energyrdquo 21 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoGore Calls for Reforms To Boost Investment in Russiardquo 22 September 1997 321 NASA ldquoPanels Give Astronaut a lsquoGorsquo for Launch to Mirrdquo news release 97-214 25 September 1997 NASA ldquoAstronaut Wolf Continuing American Presence on Mir Joint US-Russian Spacewalk Highlights STS-86 Missionrdquo news release J97-27 September 1997 Traci Watson ldquoAmid Controversy Atlantis Lifts Offrdquo USA Today 26 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoAstronaut Leaves for Tour on Mirrdquo 26 September 1997

93


was also the first in which Mir crew members used NASA spacesuits rather than those provided by the Russian Space Agency On this busy day of operations two of the Russian crew also successfully installed a new guidance computer which Atlantis had transported to the station322

NASA announced that the construction schedule for the International Space Station (ISS) remained on target to begin delivery launches in December 1998 All 15 nations participating in the building of the ISS had traveled to Johnson Space Center (JSC) to finalize the stationrsquos construction sequence and compare progress updates The international consortium agreed on a 45-flight sequence for delivering the already-assembled portions of the station from Earth to their orbiting home To assemble the colossal station completely NASA and its partners planned five years of steady launch-and-construct missions expecting to send the US-constructed Node 1 into space sometime during June 1998323

3 October The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy formally approved the mid-October launch plan of the controversial plutonium-powered Cassini Mission Critics had subjected to intense scrutiny the exploratory mission to Saturn and its moon Titan because it used nuclear power The Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice among other organizations had protested the mission and attempted to derail it but had failed to spark widespread public outrage Activists worried that the rocket might release plutonium if the launch failed despite NASArsquos more than a dozen safe launches using the hazardous fuel The mission required nuclear power because Saturn has extremely dim sunlight⎯not enough to provide adequate solar power to prevent the Cassini spacecraftrsquos instruments from freezing NASArsquos policy required that the White House give final approval of the launch because the mission used nuclear fuel NASA had begun work on the Cassini Mission in 1989 with cooperation from the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency Many regarded the mission⎯the first time a space probe had attempted to land on the moon of another planet⎯as NASArsquos boldest and most ambitious endeavor This aspect of the mission especially interested scientists who theorized that Titan has an Earth-like atmosphere NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin said of the mission ldquoI fully expect that it will return spectacular images and scientific data about Saturnrdquo324

4 October The international scientific community observed the 40th anniversary of Sputnikrsquos successful launch On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union had sent into orbit Sputnik I a small sphere-shaped satellite setting off a space race that continued throughout the Cold War Although the United States had initially responded to the Soviet Unionrsquos achievement with fear and apprehension NASA commemorated the event 40 years later with a celebratory symposium The United States had launched NASA itself less than one year after the USSRrsquos Sputnik success partly because of the American publicrsquos distress over the Soviets beating the United States into space The son of

322 Robyn Suriano ldquoSpacewalkrdquo USA Today 1 October 1997 Mark Carreau ldquoAtlantis Mir Crews Prepare for Spacewalk Computer Taskrdquo Houston Chronicle 1 October 1997 323 NASA ldquoControl Board Reports International Space Station Launch on Target Finalizes Assembly Sequencerdquo news release 97-222 1 October 1997 324 NASA ldquoCassini To Survey Worlds of Saturn and Titan Sends First Probe to Moon of Another Planetrdquo news release 97-190 3 September 1997 NASA ldquoNASA Receives Approval To Launch Cassini Missionrdquo news release 97-225 3 October 1997 Maurice Tamman ldquoProtestors Set Stagerdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 29 September 1997

94


Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev Sergei N Khrushchev a prominent professor of International Studies at Brown University in Rhode Island spoke at NASArsquos Sputnik symposium With the fall of the Soviet Union Russia had unveiled to the worldrsquos scientists many of the developmental plans of the Sputnik program However the end of communism had also precipitated enormous budget shortfalls for the Russian Space Agency Kazakhstanrsquos President Nursultan Nazarbayev took the opportunity of Sputnikrsquos widely celebrated anniversary to complain publicly that Russia owed more than US$400 million in rent for Baikonur Cosmodrome⎯the site of Sputnikrsquos launch and of ongoing Russian space activity When the Soviet confederation broke up Russia had agreed to pay US$100 million annually for the right to continue using the launch facilities in Kazakhstan325

6 October Shuttle Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida safely returning British-born US astronaut C Michael Foale to Earth after his 145-day stay aboard Mir Foalersquos tenure in space was among the longest in NASArsquos history surpassed only by Shannon W Lucidrsquos 188-day mission Although Foale was determined to return to Earthrsquos gravity in good physical condition NASA doctors planned to keep the astronaut under medical supervision for several days326

7 October NASA announced that astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had identified the most luminous star ever charted The ldquocelestial mammothrdquo large enough to fill the diameter of the Earthrsquos orbit reportedly releases up to 10 million times the power of the Sun The team from the University of California at Los Angeles estimated that the star possibly as old as 3 million years weighs up to 200 times the mass of the Sun The team nicknamed it the Pistol Star because it has a pistol-shaped nebula Despite the starrsquos mass and brightness it was not visible to the naked eye because of the interstellar dust clouds between Earth and the center of the Milky Way Therefore astronomers had used infrared technology to observe the star Team researcher Mark R Morris argued that the discovery of the massive star near the center of the galaxy would force scientists to rethink their conceptions of how stars formed in the first place327

8 October After more than nine days without sending a signal Mars Pathfinderrsquos main transmitter resiliently delivered a message to Earth To anxious project managers the message was a welcome relief The breakdown in the spacecraftrsquos communication to NASA controllers had necessitated NASArsquos activating a contingency plan for Sojourner The rover had stopped gathering data and reverted to slowly circling its parent spacecraft waiting to receive directions a pattern that some scientists feared would be the long-term fate of the rover The spacecraftrsquos aging batteries had caused the breakdown in communication of data However in spite of the malfunction NASA officials reiterated that the mission had fulfilled its objectives emphasizing

325 NASA ldquoReconsidering Sputnik Forty Years Since the Soviet Satelliterdquo news release N97-64 5 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoPlea for Rent Marks Sputnik Anniversaryrdquo 5 October 1997 326 Mark Carreau ldquoAstronaut Ends Marathon Ride Foale Lands on Shuttle After 145 Days Aboard Russian Space Stationrdquo Houston Chronicle 7 October 1997 327 Associated Press ldquoSpace Monsterrdquo 8 October 1997 NASA ldquoHubble Identifies What May Be the Most Luminous Star Knownrdquo news release 97-227 7 October 1997

95


that solving the problem of communicating with the craft while it was resting on the Red Planet would benefit future explorations of Mars328

Mars Pathfinder scientists announced that Mars appeared to have a crust a mantle and an iron core⎯attributes similar to those of Earth The researchers suggested that Mars may once have been warm and wet although they remained unable to determine whether Mars had a molten core such as that of Earth or Mercury or a ldquodeadrdquo core such as that of the Earthrsquos Moon The findings contributed to growing evidence that Mars might be more than a solid ball of rock and that the planet might once have had water and life Signs of possible erosion and weathering encouraged such hypotheses as well although scientists clarified that proof of such theories was still probably years away329

A Russian cargo spacecraft docked without incident at the Mir space station using the craftrsquos automatic pilot to complete the maneuver It was the first successful docking after two previous failed attempts one of which had resulted in the crash that seriously damaged Mir To address the earlier problem the Russian Space Agency had reconfigured the mathematical formula guiding the procedure The Progress M-36 cargo craft carried a backup computer for the space station Mirrsquos crew planned to unload the more than 6000 pounds (2700 kilograms) of cargo in the days following the delightfully uneventful docking330

10 October NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) selected Scientific and Commercial Systems Corporation of Falls Church Virginia to provide support services for its Huntsville Alabama facilities The US$66 million contract included transportation and equipment services as well as publishing mail and food support MSFC arranged the contract as a cost-plus-incentive-fee performance-based contract to provide NASA with cost savings as well as with flexibility to reorganize services as necessary331

14 October NASA announced that new smart software with more realistic landing simulations for Shuttle pilots would become an integral part of astronaut flight training Hamid Berenji Ping-Wei Chang and Steven R Swanson of JSC engineered the software which used ldquoadaptive fuzzy logicrdquo allowing the program to learn from experience and to function in a manner closer to human thinking than that of previous software The software team predicted that the program would help not only Shuttle pilots but also commercial pilots and even people learning to use machinery unrelated to aviation Berenji predicted that because the new training system would

328 Associated Press ldquoLacking Signal Mars Vehicle Is Left To Be Roving in Circlesrdquo 7 October 1997 Associated Press ldquoPathfinder Checks in After Weeks of Silencerdquo 8 October 1997 329 K C Cole ldquoInternal Structure of Mars Earth Similar Scientists Sayrdquo Houston Chronicle 9 October 1997 Associated Press ldquoMars Once Warm and Wet Data Suggestsrdquo 9 October 1997 Associated Press ldquoThree Mars Layers Suggests Life on Planet Was Possiblerdquo 9 October 1997 330 Washington Post ldquoCargo Ship Docks with Space Stationrdquo 9 October 1997 Associated Press ldquoSuccessful Docking Gives Mir a Life in Moralerdquo 8 October 1997 Reuters ldquoMir Crew To Unload Cargo After Text-Book Dockingrdquo 8 October 1997 331 NASA ldquoVirginia Firm Chosen To Provide NASA Institutional Servicesrdquo news release C97minusr 10 October 1997

96


be easier to use than previous programs new pilots would feel much more confident than before332

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of his most historic achievement Charles E ldquoChuckrdquo Yeager broke the speed of sound once again flying an F-15 fighter jet in Californiarsquos Mojave Desert NASA aired the recreation on NASA TV as part of its celebration at Edwards Air Force Base Some historians call Yeagerrsquos 1947 feat ldquothe greatest achievement since the first successful flight of the Wright Brothersrdquo The US Postal Service observed the anniversary by unveiling a commemorative stamp the ldquo50th Anniversary of Supersonic Flightrdquo The ceremonial jaunt was the 74-year old Yeagerrsquos last official US Air Force flight333

15 October The Cassini spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Florida beginning a seven-year 22 billion-mile (35 billion-kilometer) journey to and around Saturn After several delays including a two-day delay immediately before the launch because of high winds the takeoff was flawless Before the launch activists had protested Cassinirsquos fuel source 72 pounds (33 kilograms) of radioactive plutonium to calm public anxiety NASA planned to sample air quality at 25 stations surrounding the launchpad including several samples taken as far as 10 miles (16 kilometers) away Additionally a US Department of Energy aircraft flew through the trailing gases of the rocket booster to make sure that no radioactive material had leaked The US$34 billion mission set out to survey the planet Saturn its rings and its moon Titan Engineers had programmed the Cassini spacecraft to conduct a number of ldquogravity-assist swingbysrdquo flying twice past Venus and once past Earth and Jupiter to build up the speed necessary to make the long journey to Saturn About seven years into the mission NASA planned for Cassini to release a disc-shaped Huygens probe toward Titan Throughout the mission Cassini was to make more than 40 close flybys of Titan gathering far more vivid images of the moon than ever before NASA intended Cassinirsquos camera to take more than 300000 colored pictures of Saturn and its moons Scientists hoped that the mission would expand considerably the knowledge of the planet gained through the earlier Voyager missions334

President William J Clinton used his newly bestowed line-item veto power to cut funding for a ldquoreusable space planerdquo The US$10 million appropriation was a priority of the US Air Force Space Command and space officials In total Clintonrsquos line-item vetoes trimmed about US$144 million from the 1998 US Department of Defense appropriations bill less than one-tenth of 01 percent of the total bill335

332 H R Berenji et al ldquoRefining the Shuttle Training Aircraft Controllerrdquo Fuzzy Systems 1997 Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE International Conference 2 (1minus5 July 1997) pp 677minus682 NASA ldquoShuttle Landing Simulations To Improve with Smart Softwarerdquo news release 97-229 14 October 1997 333 Jay Levine ldquoYeager Bids Farewell to 800000-Plusrdquo Antelope Valley Press (Palmdale CA) 21 October 1997 NASA ldquoBreaking the Sound Barrier Reenactment on NASA TVrdquo news release N97-72 9 October 1997 334 NASA ldquoCassini Launchrdquo news release October 1997 Earl Lane ldquoPlutonium-Bearing Craft Set for Saturn Triprdquo Birmingham News (AL) 5 October 1997 Paul Hoversten ldquoNuclear Powered Craft Fuels Fury Before Launchrdquo USA Today 13 October 1997 Karl Grossman ldquoThe Risk of Cassini Probe Plutoniumrdquo Christian Science Monitor 10 October 1997 Associated Press ldquoCassini Spacecraft Lifts Off for Saturnrdquo 16 October 1997 335 John M Broder ldquoClinton Gently Vetoes $144 Million in Military Budget Itemsrdquo New York Times 15 October 1997 David L Chandler ldquoClinton Veto Delays Space Plane Plansrdquo Antelope Valley Press (Palmdale CA) 21 October 1997

97


20 October Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Y Solovyev and Pavel V Vinogradov conducted an ldquointernalrdquo spacewalk entering the damaged Spektr module of Mir Once inside the darkened module damaged by the June 1997 cargo craft collision the men found floating space debris Seven bags and a refrigerator door were among the items banging around inside the Spektr module After securing the debris the cosmonauts went to work installing new solar-panel cables to restore full power to Mir The cosmonauts who were wearing bulky spacesuits performed the 6-hour spacewalk inside a cramped module Although the men became exhausted before they could finish the repair work the arduous exercise had boosted the stationrsquos power supply by 30 percent Russian Space Agency officials planned for the cosmonauts to conduct another repair operation during the following days336

21 October The Pentagon announced that it had successfully tested its Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL) at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico The laser constructed under President Ronald Reaganrsquos Strategic Defense Initiative generated a beam that traveled more than 260 miles (418 kilometers) from Earth hitting an orbiting satellite According to Pentagon representative US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert Potter if turned to its highest setting MIRACL would have destroyed the satellite target The test which took place two years after the expiration of a 1985 congressional ban on tests of this type was the first time the United States had tested a laser aimed at an orbiting satellite Representatives of defense-related industries and scientists around the world debated the acceptability of such a test and the ethics of deploying the instrument However whether or not the test was justifiable the successful hit had demonstrated the vulnerability of satellites to Earth-based weapons337

23 October Representatives of NASA and the US Department of Health and Human Services signed an agreement to enlist NASA technologies in the fight against breast cancer and other womenrsquos illnesses creating a cooperative framework for the exchange of research information between the two agencies According to Carolyn A Krebs of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center the technology allowing HST to map distant galaxies also had the potential to scan human tissue for malignant masses338

28 October NASA announced the retirement of J Wayne Littles Director of MSFC Littles had served as Director from 1996 to 1997 the capstone to his 30-year career at the facility Wayne Littles had twice received the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive339

336 David Hoffman ldquoA Partial Repair Gives Mir a Power Boostrdquo Washington Post 21 October 1997 Associated Press ldquoA Spacewalk of Surprises Aboard Mirrdquo 21 October 1997 337 Associated Press ldquoLaser Test-Fired into Space Strikes Orbiting US Satelliterdquo 21 October 1997 338 NASA ldquoNASAHeath and Human Services To Join Forces To Fight Womenrsquos Illnessesrdquo news release N97-74 20 October 1997 339 NASA ldquoMarshall Center Director Dr Wayne Littles To Retirerdquo news release 97-247 28 October 1997

98


NOVEMBER 1997

3 November Mir cosmonauts Anatoly Y Solovyev and Pavel V Vinogradov engaged in a 6-hour spacewalk successfully dismantling a damaged solar panel so that Mirrsquos crew could install a replacement panel The Russian Space Agency nearly called off the spacewalk when Solovyev discovered a problem with the radio-monitoring system on his spacesuit just as the men prepared to leave the station Although the crewrsquos attempts to repair the monitoring system were unsuccessful Russian Mission Control eventually decided to proceed with the spacewalk The cosmonauts worked effectively communicating with Russian space officials only periodically This was Solovyevrsquos fourth spacewalk during his tenure on Mir confirming his status as the worldrsquos most experienced spacewalker with more than a dozen spacewalks to his credit While the cosmonauts worked outside Mir US astronaut David A Wolf monitored their progress from inside340

4 November After a four-month mission NASA officials announced that Mission Control had halted communications with Mars Pathfinder and its rover Sojourner Sojournerrsquos batteries were nearly drained and many of the roverrsquos instruments had frozen in Marsrsquos harsh climate Mission controllers expected the rover simply to come to a halt on Marsrsquos vast plains ceasing signal transmissions altogether Nevertheless NASA considered the US$266 million mission largely successful The mission had lasted much longer than planned transmitting from the surface of the Red Planet to Earth nearly 10000 pictures of the Martian landscape including images showing evidence of erosion as well as more than 12 billion bits of data Sojournerrsquos remarkable service even in the midst of harsh dust storms and temperatures reaching -50degF (-6degC) had excited scientists and public alike Mars Pathfinder Web sites had received more than 565 million hits during the missionrsquos tenure Using the treasure trove of information Pathfinder had gathered scientists had concluded that Marsrsquos surface had many similarities to that of Earth Perhaps the most compelling was the evidence compiled during the mission in support of the theory that at one time Mars had water on its surface In addition the missionrsquos research team concluded that water and wind had played crucial roles in shaping the planetrsquos surface Mission controllers spoke of their gratitude for the data gathered which would keep scientists busy for years as well as about their excitement at the possibility of building upon Mars Pathfinderrsquos success in future missions341

5 November A team of scientists from the University of California at Riverside announced that NASArsquos orbiting Compton Gamma Ray Observatory had enabled them to discover a ldquovast halordquo of gamma rays surrounding the Milky Way Galaxy The astronomers clarified that the discovery of the halo did not make clear how or why the gamma rays encircled the galaxy NASArsquos orbiting Compton Gamma Ray Observatory uses gamma rays to expose highly energetic particles that would otherwise be invisible because of their absorption in the atmosphere The scientific community greeted the discovery with interest and questions342

340 Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 3 November 1997 341 Paul Hoversten ldquoMars Pathfinder Comes to Quiet End Todayrdquo USA Today 4 November 1997 Reuters ldquoNASA Announces End of Mars Pathfinder Missionrdquo 5 November 1997 342 K C Cole ldquoHalo Around Milky Way Reportedrdquo Los Angeles Times 6 November 1997 Reuters ldquoGamma Rays Found Surrounding Milky Wayrdquo 5 November 1997

99


Russian Space Agency spokesperson Sergei Gorbunov announced the agencyrsquos support for a film company to shoot a Hollywood-style movie aboard Mir Russian director Yuri Kara had submitted a proposal to bring actors and film crews to Mir to shoot the film entitled ldquoSpace Flight Has a Pricerdquo Although the Russian Space Agency had not officially approved the project the cash-strapped agency welcomed the unique opportunity to earn money The biggest obstacle to the project seemed to be finding financial backers willing to pay to send Kararsquos crew into space The prospect of filming a movie aboard Mir raised some concerns in the space community but Kara noted that Russian cosmonauts already had acting experience having filmed commercials aboard the space station for products including Pepsi-Cola Omega watches and Israeli milk343

6 November A group of astronomers announced that they had used NASArsquos Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer to observe a black hole ldquoliterally dragging space and time around itself as it rotatesrdquo The discovery confirmed the existence of frame dragging an extrapolation of Albert Einsteinrsquos general theory of relativity According to the findings the black hole had such a massive gravitational field that nothing nearby not even light could escape its pull To make the discovery the team of researchers brought together academic scientists from Italy and the United States as well as NASA personnel By studying x-ray emissions the astronomers were able to find a pattern of forces that clearly revealed the strength of the black holersquos gravitational pull Alan N Bunner Director of the Structure and Evolution of the Universe Program at NASA Headquarters called the discovery ldquoexciting workrdquo encouraging scientists to test the findings Before the discovery frame dragging persisted as one of the last unverifiable theories of relativity which scientists had suspected but had been unable to observe Popular press reports touted the breakthrough as another victory for Einstein344

NASA announced that lighting technology developed to grow plants in space might help treat cancerous brain tumors in children According to a series of trials some tumor-fighting drugs performed more proficiently when illuminated with the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) created for NASArsquos Shuttle plant experiments To gauge further the effectiveness of LEDs in assisting cancer-fighting drugs Dr Harry Whelan of the Medical College of Milwaukee obtained permission from the Food and Drug Administration to use the LEDs on a limited number of children with cancer Whelanrsquos method involved injecting his patient with cancer-fighting drugs and then placing an LED probe near the affected area Whelan believed that the light focused the drugs on the dangerous tumors only leaving the rest of the patientrsquos brain unaffected NASArsquos Small Business Innovation Research program allowing small businesses to adapt NASArsquos technologies for extended public uses initiated the trial of LEDs to fight cancer345

7 November

343 Associated Press ldquoMir⎯the Movierdquo 5 November 1997 344 NASA ldquoFirst Observation of Space-Time Distortion by Black Holesrdquo news release 97-258 6 November 1997 KC Cole ldquoFinding Backs Einsteinrsquos Theory of Gravityrdquo Los Angeles Times 7 November 1997 Kathy Sawyer ldquoScore Another One for Einsteinrdquo Washington Post 7 November 1997 345 NASA ldquoSpace Research Shines a Light on Tumors To Save Livesrdquo news release 97-259 6 November 1997

100


Following on the heels of Mars Pathfinderrsquos successful mission to map the surface of Mars two researchers used sonar information and satellite images to create a highly detailed map of the global ocean floor another largely unexplored area David T Sandwell of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Walter H F Smith of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration improved by 30 times the precision of the worldrsquos most exact ocean maps Their new map revealing ridges and canyons never before delineated helped explain ocean currents and tides across the world The new mapping technology interested oil companies looking for clues to the location of fossil fuel deposits and fishermen seeking likely habitats of fish346

10 November Geochemists from the University of Michigan and the University of Tennessee announced that they had arrived at the most accurate and precise estimation of the age and origin of the Moon yet calculated They suggested that a collision between the Earth and another planet 45 to 452 billion years ago resulted in the creation of the Moon To reach their conclusion the researchers used a special spectrometry technique to examine 21 lunar samples The scientists also concluded that the collision had set Moonrsquos orbit347

13 November After altering the spacecraftrsquos path to move it farther away from Marsrsquos violent winds NASA launched Mars Global Surveyor from its safe elliptical orbit of the Red Planet sending the spacecraft into the planetrsquos harsh atmosphere NASA officials indicated that because of the change in flight plans Mars Global Surveyor would begin its mapping mission of Mars in 1999 one year later than originally planned The change of plan highlighted both the difficulty of exploring Mars and NASArsquos ability to adapt to difficult conditions When Marsrsquos atmosphere had proven more hostile than previously anticipated mission controllers had proven able to readjust Surveyorrsquos orbit In effect the move had placed Surveyor in a holding pattern keeping it from harm Once conditions had improved however NASA would not be able simply to proceed as planned Because Surveyor ran on solar power the mission planners must wait for Mars and the Sun to realign to provide energy for the craft However although NASA would have to postpone the mission for one year the delay would provide an added benefit allowing NASArsquos researchers to set Surveyor on a circular orbit that would actually bring Surveyor closer to the planet than originally projected348

NASA announced the retirement of Wilbur C Trafton who had guided NASArsquos International Space Station (ISS) planning for nearly four years Trafton resigned from his position as Director of the Space Station Program one week after a contentious hearing in which NASA officials informed Congress that cost overruns on the ISS had reached nearly US$1 billion However at Traftonrsquos departure NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin praised him stating ldquoWill Trafton has met or exceeded all of the challenges I have placed before himrdquo During Traftonrsquos tenure

346 Robert Lee Hotz ldquoMap Dramatically Deepens Learning About Sea Floorrdquo Los Angeles Times 7 November 1997 347 United Press International ldquoResearchers Narrow Moonrsquos Origins Agerdquo 10 November 1997 348 John Noble Wilford ldquoMars Map Will Come a Year Laterdquo New York Times 11 November 1997 Mark Carreau ldquoMars Map Still on Taprdquo Houston Chronicle 11 November 1997 A J Hostetler ldquoSurveyor Has New Courserdquo Times-Dispatch (Richmond VA) 13 November 1997

101


Russia had officially joined the ISS effort as a full partner and the ISS had moved from planning stage to construction349

17 November Reaffirming their commitment to the international consortiumrsquos expensive and increasingly complicated task of constructing Mirrsquos replacement NASA and the Russian Space Agency announced appointments to the first four crews that would live and work aboard the ISS NASA chose astronaut William M Shepherd as the first expedition commander Russia selected cosmonauts Yuri P Gidzenko and Sergei K Krikalev to accompany Shepherd on the first increment crew The second crew would have a Russian commander Yury V Usachev accompanied by a crew of American astronauts James S Voss and Susan J Helms Each member of the first two crews possessed significant space experience Moreover the selection of the crews represented careful diplomatic choices meant to support the strong but still strained space partnership of the United States and Russia350

18 November The Assignation Records Review Board made public more than 1500 pages of classified records including a memorandum detailing a plan to blame Prime Minister Fidel Castro and the government of the Republic of Cuba if astronaut John H Glenn Jrrsquos attempt to orbit Earth in the Mercury capsule was unsuccessful The 2 February 1962 document stated ldquoby manufacturing various pieces of evidence which would prove electronic interference on the part of the Cubansrdquo the United States could shift the blame to Castro Glennrsquos safe return to Earth rendered any such plans unnecessary351

19 November Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from Earth on Mission STS-87 with great fanfare executing an unusual 180deg roll 6 minutes into the 8frac12-minute flight a maneuver planned to put the Shuttle in radio contact with communication satellites The launch itself took place at the ldquoexact moment on the exact day as plannedrdquo for the sixth consecutive mission The six-person crew included Takao Doi a Japanese astronaut who planned to make his countryrsquos first spacewalk Kalpana Chawla the first Indian-born woman to travel into space Leonid K Kadenyuk the first Ukrainian to fly on a US Shuttle and US astronauts Kevin R Kregel Steven W Lindsey and Winston E Scott The crew planned to conduct a spacewalk to test instruments and procedures for the ISS The Shuttle also carried the US Microgravity Payload-4 which the astronauts planned to use to test the responses to conditions in space of a variety of materials and liquids352

24 November

349 NASA Trafton Announces His Departure from NASArdquo news release 97-264 13 November 1997 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoNASArsquos Space Station Chief Resignsrdquo Washington Post 14 November 1997 350 NASA ldquoUS Russia Name International Space Station Crewsrdquo news release 97-269 17 November 1997 351 George Lardner Jr and Walter Pincus ldquoMilitary Had Plan To Blame Cuba if Glennrsquos Space Mission Failedrdquo Washington Post 19 November 1997 352 NASA ldquoSolar and Microgravity Research Highlight Final Shuttle Mission of 1997rdquo news release J97037 November 1997 William Harwood ldquoColumbia Corkscrews into Orbitrdquo Washington Post 20 November 1997 Reuters ldquoUS Shuttle Blasts Off with Multinational Crewrdquo 19 November 1997 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Executes Flip on Its Way into Orbitrdquo 16 November 1997

102


Two members of Columbiarsquos crew US astronaut Winston E Scott and Japanese astronaut Takao Doi conducted a spacewalk successfully recapturing the unresponsive Spartan satellite released on 21 November After the 3000-pound (1400-kilogram) satellite had failed to turn toward the Sun Columbiarsquos robotic arm had bumped it away from the Shuttle NASA officials had cancelled the missionrsquos originally planned spacewalk to rescue the US$10 million spacecraft Astronauts Scott and Doi later received a telephone call from President William J Clinton congratulating them on grabbing the satellite353

DECEMBER 1997

1 December The US General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report on the threat of space debris to the planned International Space Station (ISS) According to the report Space Surveillance DOD and NASA Need Consolidated Requirements and a Coordinated Plan NASArsquos surveillance capabilities relying on the US Department of Defense (DOD) network of radar and optical sensors for information about possible collisions had not provided enough information to prevent collisions in space GAO surmised that DOD had focused most of its attention on military objects missing many of the smaller pieces of debris that could have caused significant damage to NASArsquos Shuttles or the ISS GAO recommended that NASA DOD and the CIA collaborate to upgrade the space surveillance system According to estimates more than 110000 pieces of debris most measuring about 05 inches (13 centimeters) in diameter were floating in space With a closing velocity of 35000 miles (56000 kilometers) per hour even such a small object would do significant damage to the ISS when the station was in a prograde orbit GAOrsquos report noted that the fully completed ISS would be 10 times larger than any Shuttle flying in space and that it would be in orbit for at least 10 years increasing the chance of a collision occurring Although they acknowledged the possibility of a collision NASA scientists argued that the odds favored the ISSrsquos avoiding such an occurrence As NASArsquos expert Chief Scientist for Orbital Debris Nicholas L Johnson explained ldquoThe odds are certainly in your favor that nothing will happen at all in those 10 years [of planned space station operation]rdquo354

2 December In a once-in-a-century occurrence eight planets lined up in the sky ldquolike pearls on a stringrdquo from west to east Astronomers could view in one line of sight Pluto followed by Mercury Mars Venus Neptune Uranus Jupiter and Saturn⎯with a crescent Moon visible as well Jack Horkheimer host of public televisionrsquos Star Hustler described the event as ldquonaked-eye astronomy at its bestrdquo a boon for amateurs According to computer calculations the orbits of the planets would not line up in such a pleasing manner for observers on the Earth for at least another century355

353 William Harwood ldquoSatellite Designed To Study Sun Failsrdquo Washington Post 22 November 1997 Associated Press ldquoColumbia Crew Prepares Plan To Recover Spinning Satelliterdquo 24 November 1997 William Harwood ldquoSpace Walkers Grab Satellite Wrestle It Back onto Shuttlerdquo 25 November 1997 Reuters ldquoSpacewalking Astronauts Grab Errant Satelliterdquo 25 November 1997 Associated Press ldquoClinton Calls Shuttle Crew with Thanksrdquo 28 November 1997 354 US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Surveillance DOD and NASA Need Consolidated Requirements and a Coordinated Planrdquo (report no NSIAD 98-42 Washington DC 1 December 1997) Sean Holton ldquoWorries Rise over Junk in Spacerdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 2 December 1997 355 Associated Press ldquoPlanets in Once-in-Century Lineuprdquo 2 December 1997

103


3 December Crew aboard Shuttle Columbia successfully released and operated the Autonomous Extrashyvehicular Robotic Camera Sprint (AERCam Sprint) The 35-pound (16-kilogram) spherical camera propelled itself around the Shuttle after astronaut Winston E Scott had released it during a spacewalk The camera used periodic jet thrusts to maneuver responding to control commands made from inside Columbia The US$3 million camera transmitted images of Columbia and its crew back to Earth providing unique vantage points for observation The astronauts who retrieved the small robotic device without any complications concluded that it would be a helpful technology for future Shuttle missions and the ISS356

8 December The Astronauts Memorial Foundation recognized Major Robert H Lawrence Jr as the first black astronaut in NASA history exactly 30 years after his death during a US Air Force training mission A ceremony adding Lawrencersquos name to the Astronauts Memorial Foundationrsquos Space Mirror at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) ended a long bureaucratic debate over whether Lawrence qualified as an astronaut Lawrence had never met the Air Force requisite that an astronaut must have flown at an altitude of least 50 miles (80 kilometers) above Earth because although he had received his appointment to the US Air Forcersquos Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program he had died before flying in space Therefore the Astronauts Memorial Foundation had repeatedly refused to include his name on the Space Mirror at KSC However in 1996 US Representative Bobby L Rush (D-IL) had persuaded the Air Force to verify Lawrencersquos status as an astronaut Thereafter the Astronauts Memorial Foundationrsquos board of directors voted immediately and unanimously to include Lawrencersquos name on the Space Mirror357

At a meeting of the American Geophysical Union scientists unveiled evidence of another cause besides the Sun of ldquokiller electronsrdquo which travel at high velocity When electrons travel from Jupiterrsquos massive magnetic field their speed approaches the speed of light Showers of high-velocity electrons cause many problems including blackouts on Earth and damage to orbiting satellites and global positioning systems Scientists had previously been unable to determine the source of the electrons causing the damage Presenting the new information on the phenomenon of high-velocity electrons the researchers declared that the ability to forecast ldquospace weatherrdquo including the patterns of high-velocity electrons would become increasingly important during the coming age of the ISS358

9 December US Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Bill Frist (R-TN) sent a harshly worded letter to NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin decrying NASArsquos chronic cost overruns and promising investigative hearings before the Senate Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation Although McCain and Frist both expressed support for NASA and for space exploration in

356 Seth Borenstein ldquoRobot Set for 1st Space Walk in Spacerdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 3 December 1997 Associated Press ldquoFree-Flying Camera Flits High Above Columbia Sends Down Videordquo 3 December 1997 357 Associated Press ldquoCrash Victim Recognized as 1st Black Astronautrdquo 8 December 1997 358 Tim Friend ldquoMystery Solved Jupiter Is Source of Killer Electronsrdquo USA Today 9 December 1997

104


general they wrote that ldquocontinual unabated overruns undermine the public faithrdquo in the space 359program

10 December NASA dedicated a plaque in memory of Ellison S Onizuka celebrating his record of achieving the highest altitude for propeller-driven aircraft Onizuka had been Hawaiirsquos first astronaut and a member of the Shuttle crew aboard Challenger when it exploded in 1986 NASArsquos recognition of Onizukarsquos achievement more than a decade later occurred during the same year that the remotely controlled AeroVironment Pathfinder broke a distance record for unpiloted space travel topping 71000 miles (114000 kilometers) during its 7 July 1997 flight NASA honored Onizuka for his part in ldquoreaching for the heavens and striving for excellencerdquo noting that his achievement had contributed to that of Pathfinder NASA dedicated the plaque honoring Onizuka at the US Navyrsquos Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai where the record-setting Pathfinder plane had set flight on its historic mission360

US Senator D Robert ldquoBobrdquo Graham (D-FL) announced a plan to lease room aboard NASA Space Shuttles and the ISS to private entities to offset the costs of space exploration Graham announced his plan during a news conference at a new Cape Canaveral Florida air station dedicated to commercial launches Congress had banned the use of the Shuttle for commercial purposes after the Challenger accident Some space experts believed that Grahamrsquos plan would take advantage of a strong commercial market for the retrieval of satellites from space Grahamrsquos plan joined a list of other initiatives of the mid-1990s designed to merge government and private space interests to ease costs for the federal government361

16 December The Galileo spacecraft made the closest ever flyby of Jupiterrsquos moon Europa and earned a place in space history by becoming the first spacecraft to orbit an outer planet Galileo came within 124 miles (200 kilometers) of Europa gathering images of what looked liked an icy ocean beneath the moonrsquos frozen crust The prospect of water on the moonrsquos surface excited scientists who had identified Europarsquos climate as unique among the moons and planets of the galaxy The images of the possible ocean seemed to show signs of ldquoslushy materialrdquo pushing up against the surface ice a sign of a heated core The flyby was the first encounter to occur during Galileorsquos two-year extension to its original mission According to press accounts Galileo launched in 1989 had already gathered enough data to force scientists to ldquorewrite textbooksrdquo362

17 December NASA released images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) revealing more clearly than ever the ldquofinal blaze of gloryrdquo of aging Sun-like stars Scientists had long hypothesized that stars gradually dimmed and died out as they cast off a shell of glowing gas However the HST revealed instead that dying stars create in space an intricate series of glowing

359 Sean Holton ldquoSenators Blast NASA for Program Overrunsrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 10 December 1997 360 NASA ldquoNASA Solar-Powered Altitude Record To Be Dedicated to Challenger Astronautrdquo news release N97shy087 3 December 1997 361 Seth Borenstein ldquoGraham Letrsquos Make Money in Spacerdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 11 December 1997 362 NASA ldquoClosest Europa Flyby Marks Start of Galileo Mission lsquoPart IIrsquordquo news release 97-286 16 December 1997 K C Cole ldquoGalileo Takes Close-Ups of Icy Europardquo Los Angeles Times 17 December 1997 Associated Press ldquoGalileo Flies By Europe Sees Indication of Ocean Under Icerdquo 17 December 1997

105


patterns⎯ldquopinwheels lawn sprinkler style jets elegant goblet shapes and even some that look like a rocket enginersquos exhaustrdquo Astronomers speculated that the new images would lead them to reanalyze ldquostellar evolutionrdquo According to Howard E Bond of the Space Telescope Science Institute of Baltimore Maryland the images made old ideas about the death of stars seem simplistic Hubble scientist David S Leckrone of NASA Headquarters referring to the eventual burning out of the Sun went so far as to say ldquoIn a very real way these images show us our own destinyrdquo Scientists believed that the images portrayed a complicated but very organized sequence of events which experts might understand after further study363

Mirrsquos crew had to abandon a German-built robotic camera called the Inspector which Russian space officials had hoped would capture precise images of the holes in the Spektr module made when the a cargo craft crashed into Mir in June 1997 The camera had failed immediately after its launch diverting from its planned course After attempting for several hours to redirect the Inspector the crew made plans to change Mirrsquos orbit to avoid a collision with the unruly robot The malfunctioning Inspector was the latest in the long string of accidents and malfunctions that had forced the three Russian-American crew members aboard Mir to spend nearly as much time on maintenance as on scientific research364

18 December President William J Clinton awarded Congressional Space Medals of Honor to Edward H White II and Roger B Chafee who died in the Apollo 1 fire Clinton presented the medals to members of the menrsquos families in a ceremony in the Oval Office White and Chafee were part of the three-man crew involved in the tragedy which had occurred more than 30 years earlier On 27 January 1967 the Apollo 1 space capsule had caught fire on the launchpad killing the three men on board the spacecraft The third member of the crew Virgil I ldquoGusrdquo Grissom had received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978 The accident had caused NASA to institute aggressive safety procedures placing a premium on the well-being of its astronauts Clinton noted the contributions of the fallen astronauts ldquothough they never got there astronauts Chaffee White and Grissomrsquos footprints are on the moonrdquo Besides Apollo 1rsquos crew only nine other astronauts had received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor365

21 December NASA announced that because of a US$100 million budget shortfall it would lay off 600 workers from its 6000-person workforce including 500 workers from KSC United Space Alliance the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and the Boeing Company which NASA had contracted to take over Shuttle operations planned to solicit volunteers for early retirement

363 NASA ldquoHubble Witnesses the Final Blaze of Glory of Sun-Like Starsrdquo news release 97-287 17 December 1997 Paul Hoversten ldquoHubble Observes Starsrsquo Swan Songsrdquo USA Today 18 December 1997 John Noble Wilford ldquoHubble Takes Gaudy Photos of Dying Starsrdquo New York Times 18 December 1997 Associated Press ldquoHubble Previews Death of Earth in 6 Billion Yearsrdquo 18 December 1997 364 Reuters ldquoMir To Abandon Robot Space Camera After Failurerdquo 17 December 1997 Associated Press ldquoRobot Fails Floats Free Near Mirrdquo 18 December 1997 365 Associated Press ldquoApollo 1 Astronauts Honored 3 Killed in 1967 Fire on Launch Padrdquo 18 December 1997 Associated Press ldquoClinton Gives Congressional Space Medalrdquo 17 December 1997

106


before resorting to ldquopink slipsrdquo To ensure the maintenance of safety standards NASA was to maintain the right of final approval of all personnel decisions366

24 December EarthWatch Inc of Longmont Colorado launched into orbit Early Bird 1 the first private spy satellite The launch which took place in Russia ended government domination of space spying According to EarthWatch Early Bird 1 had the capability to track objects on Earth as small as 10-feet (3-meters) long The company also reported that ldquocustomers were lining up to buy imagesrdquo Customers for Early Bird 1 services included public interest groups planning to track military movement and arms control measures and foreign governments without the resources to launch their own satellites Because Early Bird 1 was an American-produced satellite the US federal government retained the right to switch it off during wartime as well as the right to filter images sold to foreign customers Experts predicted that the security and privacy questions surrounding the first private spy satellite would take years to sort out However they also surmised that Early Bird 1 was only the first in the wave of satellites that private industry would launch during the coming decade367

25 December The Russian Space Agency paid cosmonauts Vasili V Tsibliyev and Alexander I Lazutkin belated bonuses for their six-month Mir mission payments that Russia had withheld until investigators had determined the two menrsquos roles during the troubled mission which included the crash of a robotic cargo craft into Mir S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia) the company that built Mir had blamed Tsibliyev and Lazutkin suggesting that Russia deny the two cosmonauts their salaries However once the Russian government had determined that human error had been only one among many causes of the crash RSC Energiarsquos President Yuri P Semyonov had retracted the companyrsquos demand that Russia punish the cosmonauts and had supported their right to receive payment Tsibliyev received about US$100000 and Lazutkin about US$80000 Both men had expressed dismay at the negative reception they had received upon returning to Earth after the difficult mission368

JANUARY 1998

1 January NASArsquos Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia opened a new Collaborative Engineering Center equipped with virtual reality teleconferencing and cutting-edge technology Using a combination of a joystick and computerized voice commands engineers could control the three-dimensional virtual space station which included a docking Space Shuttle orbiter369

4 January

366 Dan Klepal ldquoNASA Confirms 600 Jobs Will Be Cutrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 21 December 1997 Associated Press ldquoSpace Center Layoffsrdquo 23 December 1997 367 William J Broad ldquoFirst Civilian Spy Satellite Soars into Space Launched in Russia by a US Companyrdquo New York Times 25 December 1997 Reuters ldquo1st Civilian Spy Satellite Launched in Russiardquo 26 December 1997 368 Associated Press ldquoMirrsquos Pay Dayrdquo 25 December 1997 369 Akweli Parker ldquoNASA Reshaping the Way It Worksrdquo Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk VA) 16 January 1998

107


The crew of the Mir space station replaced the malfunctioning computer block which had failed on 2 January and restarted the stationrsquos orientation system This common type of malfunction which had occurred seven times in 1997 did not create life-threatening conditions but it did reduce the power supply to the space station thereby crippling the gyroscope that oriented the stationrsquos solar panels Using the Soyuz escape module engines to control its orientation Mir turned off all nonessential systems to conserve energy until the crew had completed the repair370

Steve Fossettrsquos Solo Spirit balloon carrying NASArsquos prototype Aerobot Science Payload landed prematurely when it experienced equipment problems NASA had been testing the Aerobot Science Payload prototype for use on balloons in outer space to collect information from other planetsrsquo atmospheres On this trip Aerobot returned accurate data on position balloon velocity vertical wind velocity temperature and humidity but experienced problems with a pressure sensor and a satellite communications link371

6 January An Athena II rocket carrying Lunar Prospector launched from the renovated US Navy test-launch site Launch Complex 46 marking the first time that the government-based space transportation agency Spaceport Florida Authority had managed a launch from the complex The rocket carried aboard some of the ashes of geologist Eugene M Shoemaker who had died in a car crash in July 1997 Among his many professional accomplishments the sixty-nine-year-old Shoemaker had selected lunar landing sites and trained Apollo astronauts On 5 January NASA had cancelled Athena IIrsquos first scheduled launch for safety reasons after US Air Force radar necessary to track the rocket failed The unpiloted rocket launched at 928 pm (EST) and after 1 hour propelled the 4-foot (12-meter) 650-pound (291-kilogram) Lunar Prospector out of low-Earth orbit toward the Moon372

8 January Astronomers announced that pictures from a new camera on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) supported the theory that a new planet was forming around Beta Pictoris Images focusing on the disc (the halo of dust and gas rotating around the star) revealed that instead of a smooth flow one quadrant has a large bulge indicating the orbital path of a planet that could be many times larger than Jupiter No actual planet was visible in the images only the effects of its gravitational pull Nevertheless this was the strongest evidence to date in visible light of the presence of a possible planet Beta Pictoris is younger (20 million to 100 million years old compared to the Sunrsquos 45 to 5 billion years) and about eight times brighter than the Sun The formation of planets around a young star suggested that planets form very early in the life of a solar system373

370 Washington Post ldquoMir Crew Replaces Computer Blockrdquo 4 January 1998 Chicago Tribune ldquoNew Year Old WoemdashMir Computer Glitchrdquo 3 January 1998 371 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoBalloon Trip Helps Martian Studiesrdquo 11 January 1998 372 Lynne Bumpus-Hooper ldquoProspector Off on Historic Trip to Moonrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 7 January 1998 Jim Erickson ldquoLate Flagstaff Astronomerrsquos Ashes Are Headed for Moon in Fitting Tributerdquo Arizona Daily Star (Tucson AZ) 7 January 1998 Washington Times ldquoNASA Launches Mission to Moon Seeking Water for Future Settlersrdquo 7 January 1998 373 Washington Post ldquoImages Support Theory of New Planet Hubble Photos Show Bulge in Starrsquos Halo Dustmdash63 Light-Years from Sunrdquo 9 January 1998

108


NASA named current Director of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Joseph H Rothenberg to head its Office of Space Flight which oversees the Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise which includes the Shuttle program and the planned International Space Station (ISS) Rothenberg replaced Wilbur C Trafton who had announced his resignation in November 1997 The Office of Space Flight accounted for about 40 percent of NASArsquos US$136 billion annual budget Rothenberg was the first Director of the Office of Space Flight who had no experience in military aviation the astronaut corps the Space Shuttle or management of the space station program However he had a strong background in engineering and astronomy Rothenberg was closely involved in planning and using the HST and had worked as a space engineer at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) NASA named Alphonso V Diaz to succeed Rothenberg at GSFC374

9 January The two Russian crew members of the Mir space station completed a record-breaking spacewalk Commander Anatoly Y Solovyev and Pavel V Vinogradov dismantled and retrieved in record time the Kristall modulersquos optical-monitoring equipment made by the United States The scheduled 6-hour spacewalk took only 3 hours and 8 minutes However it was unclear whether the cosmonauts had been able to repair a leaky hatch The problem was not with the rubber sealing as Russian ground control had suspected but rather with a malfunctioning lock that was preventing the hatch from sealing hermetically The cosmonauts activated 10 reserve locks and pumped air into the airlock planning to monitor the hatch for leaks over the next 24 hours The spacewalk was Commander Solovyevrsquos 16th in five flights over 10 years He had spent more than 70 hours in free space more than any other person had accrued375

11 January Russian Mission Control monitored Mirrsquos airlock pressure following the repair work of 9 January On Friday 8 January when the crew entered the airlock without spacesuits to retrieve some equipment the repair was holding but the pressure had fallen slightly Russian ground control near Moscow which was analyzing the data planned to decide on Monday whether Mirrsquos Kvant-2 module was safe376

At 715 am (EST) Lunar Prospector executed the first of three engine bursts needed to settle into orbit In a flawlessly executed maneuver Prospector fired its engines for 30 minutes to slow down permitting the Moonrsquos gravity to capture it The small robotic spacecraft was NASArsquos first visitor to the Moon since the astronauts from Apollo 17 had walked on its surface in 1972 The Lunar Prospector project had cost about US$63 million377

12 January

374 Sean Holton ldquoNASA Picks an Outsider To Run Shuttles Space Stationrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 9 January 1998 Washington Post ldquoRothenberg To Head Office of Space Flightrdquo 9 January 1998 NASA ldquoDiaz Named Goddard Space Flight Directorrdquo news release 98-4 8 January 1998 375 Washington Post ldquoMir Commander Walks into Spaceflight Historyrdquo 10 January 1998 Washington Times ldquoCosmonauts Possibly Fix Leaky Hatch Do Spacewalk in Record-Short Timerdquo 10 January 1998 376 Reuters ldquoMirrsquos Airlock Pressure Down a BitmdashRussian Controlrdquo 11 January 1998 377 Washington Times ldquoAfter 25 Years NASA Shoots for the Moonrdquo 12 January 1998 Robyn Suriano ldquoProspector Slides into Lunar Orbitrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 12 January 1998

109


Pressure in Mirrsquos Kvant-2 module had been dropping steadily to about three-quarters of the normal atmospheric pressure of Earth indicating that the hatch was still not closing properly Despite these problems the team delayed further repairs scheduling them to take place after other planned events including a spacewalk scheduled for later in the week the docking with Space Shuttle Endeavour planned for 25 January and the arrival of a Russian-French team on 30 January378

13 January Lunar Prospector settled into its orbit after three flawless engine burns The five scientific instruments (magnetometer electron reflectometer gamma-ray spectrometer neutron spectrometer alpha particle spectrometer and Doppler gravity experiment using an S-band antenna) began transmitting streams of data The neutron spectrometer scanned the lunar surface for evidence of hydrogen the gamma-ray spectrometer determined concentrations of elements such as uranium and iron and the alpha-particle spectrometer searched for indications of volcanic and tectonic activity379

The contractor operating the Space Shuttle program United Space Alliance (USA) announced that it would cut 500 jobs at KSC by 30 January to reduce total workforce by 10 percent The announcement raised concerns in Congress about Shuttle safety380

Florida state leaders began forming a task force to attract Lockheed Martinrsquos VentureStarTM

Reusable Launch Vehicle to the coastrsquos spaceports US Representative David Weldon Jr (RshyFL) confirmed verbal commitments from the Spaceport Florida Authority and from Enterprise Florida to help fund the task force The Florida VentureStarTM Capture Team the proposed name for the task force estimated that they needed between US$200000 and US$1 million to carry out a successful bid for the VentureStarTM business381

15 January American astronaut David A Wolf made his first spacewalk accompanied by veteran spacewalker Anatoly Y Solovyev Commander of the Mir space station Solovyev making his 18th spacewalk set the worldrsquos record for the highest number of spacewalks by one individual382

The spacewalk began 20 minutes later than scheduled because of problems opening locks on the malfunctioning outer hatch The scheduled task had been to assess wear and tear on the exterior of the station using a photoreflectometer designed in the United States David A Wolf worked for 2 hours trying to verify whether the device was working properly but only succeeded in taking readings on the shell of the nine-year-old Kvant-2 module one of the stationrsquos oldest

378 Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 12 January 1998 Reuters ldquoMir Airlock Continues To Leak After Repairrdquo 12 January 1998 379 Reuters ldquoCorrectedmdashUS Space Probe Begins Hunt for Water on the Moonrdquo 14 January 1998 NASA ldquoSolar System Exploration Lunar Prospectorrdquo httpsolarsystemnasagovmissionsprofilecfmMCode=LunarPrampDis play=ReadMore (accessed 30 July 2007) 380 Robyn Suriano ldquo500 KSC Layoffs Jan 30 Expected Budget Shortfall Will Reduce Work Force 10 Percentrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 14 January 1998 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoLatest Round of KSC Layoffs Needs Congressional Scrutinyrdquo 15 January 1998 381 Todd Halvorson ldquoTask Force To Focus on Attracting Lockheed Martinrsquos VentureStar to Staterdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 14 January 1998 382 Seth Borenstein ldquoAmerican Gets Ready for Spacewalk Todayrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 14 January 1998

110


compartments Engineers planned to use the data to help make selections for materials and protective coatings for the new ISS Flight Director Vladimir A Solovyov explained in a news conference at Mission Control outside Moscow ldquothe device proved to be far from mature so it was decided to skip the examination of the core modulerdquo Instead the two men studied the holes in the Spektr module which had suffered punctures during a collision with a cargo craft on 25 June 1997383

16 January Mir Commander Anatoly Y Solovyev celebrated his 50th birthday⎯in space enjoying a ldquosemishyofficiallyrdquo sanctioned one-gulp-per-person dose of cognac and a birthday dinner chosen from the space stationrsquos supplies Solovyev had logged an impressive 80 hours of spacewalking during 17 walks As of this Mir mission Solovyevrsquos fifth the Russian cosmonaut had spent a cumulative total of approximately 20 months on the space station384

NASA officially named US Senator John H Glenn Jr (D-OH) veteran astronaut of the Mercury program as a crew member aboard Space Shuttle Discoveryrsquos Mission STS-95 planned for October 1998 At age 77 Glenn would become the oldest person to fly in orbit In 1962 he had been the first American to orbit Earth NASA described the research planned during Glennrsquos spaceflight a joint effort between NASA and the National Institute of Aging of the National Institutes of Health Scientists intended to supplement peer-reviewed research on sleep disorders muscle atrophy balance and clinical evaluations of blood and heart function with data collected during Discoveryrsquos planned October mission Senator Glenn had undergone medical tests with NASA physicians as well as with independent consultants all of whom had determined that Glenn was medically qualified for spaceflight with an excellent fitness level NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin remarked that Glenn ldquobrings a unique blend of experience to NASA He has flight operational and policy experiencerdquo385

18 January The Russian Space Agency announced that the first module of the ISS was completed and ready to ship to the launchpad Under a contract with Boeing Company Khrunichevrsquos Moscow factory had designed and built this first module to hold cargo The new module was similar to two existing modules in the Mir space station Russia had originally scheduled the module for launch in November 1997 but fell behind in the production of the second unit Despite the delay Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev emphasized the importance of the day during a news conference ldquoThis event symbolizes the fact that Russia was is and shall be a space nation capable of realizing large-scale projects penetrating into spacerdquo The ISS project a joint effort of Russia the United States the European Space Agency (ESA) Canada and Japan was especially significant to Russia since the ISS would replace Mir as the only piloted element of Russiarsquos space program386

383 USA Today ldquoAmerican Looks at Mir from Outsiderdquo 15 January 1998 Oleg Shchedrov for Reuters ldquoHitches Marred Mir Crew Space Walk Says Officialrdquo 15 January 1998 Houston Chronicle ldquoAstronaut Cosmonaut Take Short Spacewalk Excursion Marked by a Few Small Difficultiesrdquo 15 January 1998 384 Associated Press ldquoMir-50-Year-Old Cosmonautrdquo 16 January 1998 385 NASA ldquoSen Glenn Gets a lsquoGorsquo for Space Shuttle Missionrdquo news release 98-8 16 January 1998 386 Associated Press ldquoRussia-Space Stationrdquo 18 January 1998

111


20 January Following a meeting of the Defence Council President Boris N Yeltsin issued a decree giving overall control of Russiarsquos space industry to the civilian Russian Space Agency Yeltsinrsquos intention was ldquoto extract maximum economic benefit from one of the few manufacturing industries in which Russia is a world leaderrdquo With this decree Yeltsin required the government to create a plan for a restructured space industry giving priority to national security to economic and scientific missions and to strengthening Russiarsquos position in the world marketplace387

21 January A NASA Space Shuttle program manager announced that a special safety study would not prevent USA the prime Space Shuttle contractor from cutting up to 10 percent of its workforce at KSC The safety report not yet released called for some changes in the layoff plan but would still permit the private company to cut up to 600 jobs388

NASA modified its contract with Orbital Sciences Corporation in order to produce a second flight vehicle for the X-34 program The modified contract expanded test objectives allowing US$77 million in additional funds for the purchase of hardware and another US$2 million for additional testing and analysis wind tunnel testing and a second leading-edge thermal protection system389

NASA announced the change in name of one of its four strategic enterprises NASArsquos Mission to Planet Earth Strategic Enterprise was renamed Earth Science Enterprise Mission to Planet Earth Strategic Enterprise had originated 10 years ago based on the concept that NASA should observe the Earth in the same way that it studies other planets NASA said that the new name reflected the enterprisersquos reformulated goals NASArsquos Earth Science Enterprise would seek to answer key questions about land-surface cover near-term and long-term climate change natural hazards and atmospheric ozone390

The Russian Space Agency nominated veteran cosmonaut Valery V Ryumin to fly as a mission specialist aboard Discovery during Mission STS-91 in May In his last spaceflight in 1980 Ryumin was a member of the Soyuz 35 Mission During that mission he had spent 185 days in space from April through October Ryumin had spent a total of 362 days in space in the course of his three missions391

22 January Space Shuttle Endeavour Mission STS-89 successfully launched from KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida despite forecasted thunderstorms The crew of STS-89 included Commander Terrence W Wilcutt Pilot Joe F Edwards Jr Payload Commander Bonnie J Dunbar and Mission Specialists Michael P Anderson James F Reilly Salizhan S Sharipov and Andrew S W Thomas who would replace David A Wolf on Mir This was the eighth ShuttlendashMir docking

387 Reuters ldquoRussia Puts Civilian Agency in Charge of Spacerdquo 20 January 1998 388 Seth Borenstein for Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News ldquoKennedy Space Center in Florida To Cut 600 Private-Company Shuttle Jobsrdquo 22 January 1998 389 NASA ldquoNASA Commits to Second Vehicle for X-34 Programrdquo news release 98-11 21 January 1998 390 NASA ldquoMission to Planet Earth Enterprise Name Changed to Earth Sciencerdquo news release 98-12 21 January 1998 391 NASA ldquoVeteran Cosmonaut Nominated To Fly on Final ShuttleMir Missionrdquo news release 21 January 1998

112


but the first for an orbiter other than Atlantis and the first overseen by Launch Director David A King NASA had appointed two new rotational launch directors David A King and Ralph R Roe Jr following the retirement of veteran Launch Director James F Harrington III392

NASA Launch Integration Manager Donald R McMonagle announced that Space Shuttle Columbiarsquos tune-up would take place at the Boeing Companyrsquos facility in Palmdale California rather than at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida NASA Launch Integration and Shuttle operator USA advised Boeing officials ldquoto get ready to map out a plan for Columbiarsquos work in Californiardquo The announcement following the recent notification about significant job cuts was more bad news for KSC officials NASA officials had proposed in 1996 that KSC handle much of the Shuttlersquos maintenance and modification but had decided that the facility was ldquotoo busy with launches to handle [S]huttle renovationrdquo Alan Buis a Boeing representative suggested that because Columbia would be getting ldquoa complicated internal glass cockpit Palmdale is lsquoa logical choicersquordquo393

24 January Shuttle Endeavour docked with Mir at an altitude of 214 nautical miles (2467 miles or 3970 kilometers) bringing the seventh American astronaut to work on board Mir since the program began in 1995 Andrew S W Thomas a mechanical engineer replaced David A Wolf a physician who had been on board Mir since September The hatches opened at 525 pm (EST) and Thomass transfer occurred at 635 pm (EST)394

25 January Astronaut Andrew S W Thomas was unable to fit into his Russian-made emergency spacesuit before boarding Mir but after initial orders that Thomas spend the first night in the Space Shuttle Mission Control granted him permission to board The suit was necessary only in case of emergency evacuation aboard Soyuz Once aboard Mir Thomas altered his spacesuit adjusting and removing some straps in the armpit and torso areas After the alterations the suit fit exactly as it should ensuring that Thomas would not have to return to Earth with Endeavour on Thursday395

During the Shuttlersquos docking at Mir a sensor aboard Endeavour failed requiring Mir to take control of Endeavour Mir was to keep the Shuttle pointed in the right direction until Mission Control could transmit software to fix the sensor396 Crews transferred about half of the 7400 pounds (3356 kilograms) of supplies and equipment aboard the Shuttle to the space station397

392 USA Today ldquoShuttle Liftsrdquo 23 January 1998 Seth Borenstein ldquoWeather May Keep Endeavour on Groundrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 21 January 1998 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-89rdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pages shuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-89html (accessed 11 June 2007) NASA Kennedy Space Center ldquoKSC Launch Director Harrington To Retire Successors Namedrdquo news release 223-97 17 December 1997 httpwww-paokscnasagovkscpaorelease1997223-97htm (accessed 5 August 2008) 393 Seth Borenstein ldquoCalifornia Plant Gets Shuttle Work Againrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 24 January 1998 394 New York Times ldquoShuttle Docks at Space Station with Astronaut and Suppliesrdquo 25 January 1998 NASA ldquoSTSshy89rdquo 395 Steve Marshall ldquoMir Spacesuit Astronaut Prove To Be a Poor Fitrdquo USA Today 26 January 1998 Washington Post ldquoAstronaut Moves into Mir Despite Spacesuit Problemrdquo 26 January 1998 Washington Times ldquoThomas Finally Fits in on Mir Crucial Alterations Made to Space Suitrdquo 27 January 1998 396 Pauline Arrillaga for Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttlerdquo 26 January 1998 397 Brad Liston for Reuters ldquoBalky Suit and Other Problems Fixed on Mirrdquo 26 January 1998

113


26 January A Russian Space Agency official insisted that there had been no problem with Andrew S W Thomasrsquos spacesuit describing the US astronaut as bad tempered and expressing concern about the implications of Thomasrsquos attitude for the remainder of the mission Deputy Flight Commander Viktor Blagov indicated that since major work would take place on Mir ldquoany fuss about the space suit is out of placerdquo Blagov explained that Thomas would keep both David Wolfrsquos spacesuit and his own398

Endeavour lost power to its small forward-maneuvering jets for 30 minutes Because the jets which deliver 25 pounds (11 kilograms) of thrust keep the complex stabilized as it orbits Earth the loss of power left the EndeavourndashMir complex adrift During this malfunction the crew continued its main task to transfer supplies and equipment from the Shuttle to the space station NASA officials explained that the crew had never been in danger However if the Shuttlersquos small maneuvering jets had not regained power Endeavour would have had to rely on its primary jets which deliver 875 pounds (397 kilograms) of thrust Using the primary jets would have risked damage to Mir upon separation of the two spacecraft399

NASA announced the discovery of a fast-spinning pulsar providing evidence of an evolutionary link between strong-field slower-spinning energetic pulsars and weak-field millisecond pulsars Frank Marshall William W Zhang and Eric V Gotthelf of GSFC found the pulsar by examining x-ray emissions that NASArsquos Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer spacecraft had recorded in 1996 Observations of the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics spacecraft a satellite jointly owned by Japan and the United States confirmed the discovery The scientists reported that the pulsar was spinning at a rate of 60 times per second and that it could have been spinning as fast as 150 times per second when it formed 4000 years ago An astrophysicist at the US Department of Energyrsquos Los Alamos National Laboratory remarked ldquothis is the fastest high-energy pulsar of its type we know aboutrdquo The research team reported that the pulsar is ldquolikely associated with the remnant of a supernova (N157B) that exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 4000 years agordquo Comparing the pulsar found in N157B to the high-energy pulsar in the Crab Nebula the scientists reported that the central source of x-ray light from N157B is this fast-spinning pulsar associated with a supernova remnant proving the hypothesis that the weaker the magnetic field the faster the pulsar spins at birth400

27 January Engineers at KSC made corrections to Endeavourrsquos software completely repairing the Shuttlersquos jets overnight After the transmittal of the corrected software to the computers on board the Shuttle the problem was resolved NASA believed that a malfunctioning relay latch an electrical connection on the spacecraft had caused the problem401

398 Reuters ldquoBalky Suitrdquo 399 Brad Liston for Reuters ldquoFaulty Jets Are Fixed and Space Complex Is Stabilizedrdquo New York Times 27 January 1998 400 NASA ldquoFast-Spinning Pulsar Discovery Provides Evolutionary Linkrdquo news release 98-14 26 January 1998 401 Reuters ldquoFaulty Jets Are Fixedrdquo

114


28 January The crew closed the hatches used to transfer equipment between Endeavour and Mir at 534 pm (EST) in preparation for Endeavourrsquos return flight to Earth The closure of the hatches concluded five days of Endeavourrsquos continuous link-up with Mir during which time the astronauts and cosmonauts had transferred 9600 pounds (4350 kilograms) of materials In addition to equipment exchanges the crew exchanged American astronaut David A Wolf for Andrew S W Thomas a US astronaut born in Australia who was to remain aboard Mir for a planned four-and-one-half-month mission402

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a US$423 million contract to Hughes Space and Communications of El Segundo California to manufacture and launch up to four weather-monitoring Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) The basic contract covered the manufacture and launch of two spacecraft Separate fixed-price options for two additional spacecraft would cost US$190 million and US$185 million The spacecraft would carry instruments to provide regular measurements of the Earthrsquos atmosphere cloud cover and land surfaces Two spacecraft would also carry the Solar X-ray Imager and Space Environment Monitor instruments These four spacecraft known as GOES-N -O -P and -Q were to continue enhancing the services of the current GOES-I through -M series a ldquomainstay of modern weather forecastingrdquo The GOES series provided meteorologists and hydrologists with ldquovisible and infrared images of weather systems and precise atmospheric soundingsrdquo The positions of the spacecraft in orbit would allow scientists to monitor storms when they were first forming in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans403

29 January An Atlas rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 137 pm (EST) after NASA had scrubbed the flight three days in a row The Lockheed Martin rocket which carried a classified spacecraft for the Pentagonrsquos National Reconnaissance Office separated from its passenger 1frac12 hours after launching with the satellite successfully placed in orbit The satellite viewing two-thirds of the globe was to circle the Earth in an egg-shaped orbit taking it from 24000 miles (39000 kilometers) above the northern latitudes to just 200 miles (322 kilometers) above Antarctica404

Endeavour separated from Mir to head home at 1157 am (EST) returning David A Wolf to Earth and leaving Andrew S W Thomas at the Mir station for a four-and-one-half-month stay Wolf was returning to Earth aboard Endeavour after completing a 119-day stay on Mir The new crew of Mir two cosmonauts Kazakh Talgat A Musabayev and Russian Nikolai M Budarin and a French astronaut Leacuteopold Eyharts lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Soyuz TM-27 23 minutes before Endeavour undocked from Mir405

402Pauline Arrillaga for Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttlerdquo 30 January 1998 NASA ldquoSTS-89rdquo 403 NASA ldquoHughes Selected To Build Weather Satellitesrdquo contract announcement release C98-B 28 January 1998 404 Robyn Suriano ldquoAtlas Launches on Fourth Try Classified Craft Likely To Serve as Orbital Switchboardrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 30 January 1998 405 New York Times ldquoShuttle Departs Leaving Last American on Mirrdquo 30 January 1998 Paul Hoversten ldquoEndeavour Separates from Mirrdquo USA Today 30 January 1998 NASA ldquoSTS-89rdquo

115


Fourteen nations and space agencies participated in a ceremony signing final accords to build and manage the future ISS Participating countries were Belgium Canada Denmark France Germany Italy Japan the Netherlands Norway Russia Spain Sweden Switzerland the United Kingdom and the United States Acting Secretary of State Strobe Talbott signed on behalf of the United States the 1998 Intergovernmental Agreement on Space Station Cooperation and NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin signed separate bilateral memoranda of understanding with heads of the Russian Space Agency ESA and the Canadian Space Agency The new agreements superseded previous agreements concerning the ISS which Canada Europe Japan and the United States had signed in 1988406

30 January Raytheon Systems Companyrsquos training unit formerly known as Hughes Training appointed former astronaut Henry W Hartsfield Jr as Managing Director for the companyrsquos NASA support business In this position Hartsfield was to manage the development of simulators for the ISS program407

31 January Just hours before Endeavour touched down in Florida a new crew from Russia docked at Mir to begin a three-week transition from Mir 24 to Mir 25 Mir 25 Commander Talgat A Musabayev replaced Anatoly Y Solovyev Flight Engineer Nikolai M Budarin replaced Pavel V Vinogradov and Researcher Leacuteopold Eyharts a 40-year old French air force pilot on his first spaceflight joined the crew408

The US Air Force Space and Missile Museum in Cape Canaveral Florida celebrated the 40th

anniversary of the successful launch of the modified Redstone rocket which had carried into orbit Explorer I the United Statesrsquo first satellite The launch occurred four months after the Soviet Union had placed Sputnik I in orbit In addition to achieving orbit the 31-pound (14shykilogram) Explorer I had discovered the Van Allen Radiation Belt The museum at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station held an open house and a space fair and launched a model rocket to celebrate the anniversary of this milestone and to educate the public about the United Statesrsquo 40 years in space409

FEBRUARY 1998

1 February One thousand Puerto Ricans protested against NASArsquos plans to launch from a nature preserve in Puerto Rico suborbital rockets filled with chemicals The Coqui Dos program planned the launch to measure high-level winds and turbulence in the upper atmosphere Coqui Dos continued the El Coqui program of 1992 part of NASArsquos Suborbital Sounding Rocket program which launched 25 sounding rockets annually from locations worldwide Because the rockets

406 New York Times ldquoSpace Station Accord Signedrdquo 30 January 1998 Associated Press ldquoAgreements Signed for Launching of Space Stationrdquo 29 January 1998 NASA ldquoSpace Station Agreements To Be Signed in Washingtonrdquo news release 98-17 29 January 1998 407 David Welch for Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News ldquoRaytheon Systems Names Chief of NASA Dealsrdquo 30 January 1998 408 NASA ldquoSTS-89rdquo Washington Post ldquo2 Russians Frenchman Blast Off for Mirrdquo 30 January 1998 409 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoExplorer 1 Anniversary Event Will Bring History to Liferdquo 31 January 1998

116


would disperse aluminum trimethol before crashing into the sea the protesters demanded that NASA produce studies proving that the launch would not damage the environment The mayor of Vega Baja led the protest outside the entrance to the Tortuguero Recreation Area the section of the nature preserve where the rocket launches would take place threatening to sue NASA to force it to release environmental impact studies from the 1992 launch410

2 February Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced that NASA planned to reserve an additional US$750 million of federal funds over the next two years enabling Lockheed Martin to continue work on a replacement vehicle for the Space Shuttle Lockheed Martin and NASA had signed an agreement in 1996 to develop the X-33 suborbital test craft At that time the federal government had pledged to dedicate US$900 million to develop the craft and fund 15 suborbital test flights beginning in the spring of 1999 Goldin explained that if the test program exceeded the original ceiling of US$900 million the US$750 million funding pool would be available beginning in the year 2000 to develop the X-33 replacement vehicle411

NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced the selection of Ghassem R Asrar as the new Associate Administrator for Earth Science Enterprise Before this appointment Asrar had served as Chief Scientist for the Earth Observing System in the Office of Earth Science Enterprise at NASA Headquarters He led an international team in developing scientific priorities and measurements ldquoto be obtained from a series of advanced Earth-orbiting satellites that promise fundamental new insights into the connections between Earthrsquos land oceans atmosphere ice and liferdquo412

4 February A West European Ariane 4LP rocket blasted off from French Guiana carrying two communications satellites Brasilsat-3 and Inmarsat-3 Twenty-one minutes after takeoff the first satellite belonging to Brazil separated from the rocket Five minutes later the second satellite a 2-ton (1800-kilogram or 18-tonne) worldwide mobile communications satellite separated from the rocket The launch successfully placed both satellites in orbit413

6 February Shuttle operator United Space Alliance (USA) cut 363 jobs at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) one of the largest cutbacks in decades Combining the layoffs with 194 voluntary resignations USA eliminated 557 jobs at KSC In implementing the cutbacks the company hoped to ldquotrim $100 million from the current [S]huttle budgetrdquo thereby reducing costs improving efficiency and attracting new payload customers without compromising safety414

10 February

410 NASA ldquoNASA Studying Space Weather from Puerto Ricordquo news release 98-23 6 February 1998 Mario Maldonado for Associated Press ldquoPuerto Rico-NASArdquo 1 February 1998 Lance Oliver ldquo11 Launches Will Attract Protesters Many in Puerto Rico Fear Damage by Research Rocketsrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 2 February 1998 411 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International More NASA Money for Shuttle Replacementrdquo 3 February 1998 412 NASA ldquoAsrar Named Associate Administrator for Earth Sciencerdquo news release 98-19 2 February 1998 413 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoEuropean Ariane Rocket Puts 2 Satellites into Orbitrdquo 5 February 1998 414 Richard Burnett and Seth Borenstein ldquo363 Lose Jobs at Space Centerrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 7 February 1998

117


At a news conference at NASA in Washington DC Robert P Kirshner astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and other astronomers discussed new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images showing a ldquoshock wave lighting a knot of gas some 100 billion miles [161 billion kilometers] widerdquo In 1987 when a telescope in Chile detected the first light of an exploding star the supernova designated SN1987A astronomers had observed a glowing ring of gas around the remnant of the star Although the gas ring had cooled and faded the new HST images showed the shock wave of energy colliding with and lighting up the edges of the ring The astronomers had been studying the images closely to learn more about how stars evolve and become supernovas Anne L Kinney of the Space Telescope Science Institute explained that studying stellar evolution and the inner workings of supernovas is important because the explosions that create supernovas ldquofertilize the galaxiesrdquo with the enriched material of heavy elements415

The National Research Council released a report entitled ldquoSpace Technology for the New Centuryrdquo finalizing two years of independent study by an expert panel conducted at the request of NASA The reportrsquos key finding stated that because of its ldquofaster better cheaperrdquo short-term goals NASA ldquomay be neglecting key technologies needed for longer-term advances in spacerdquo The panel identified six technologies that NASA ought to ldquospur with annual investments of $3 million to $5 million eachrdquo The technologies all with broad-based applications include 1) high-volume planet-to-planet video and data communications based on laser technologies instead of radio frequencies 2) precisely controlled space structures (space telescopes with more sophisticated and sensitive steering and pointing) 3) micro-machines 4) safer and more efficient nuclear power systems 5) radiation-resistant computers and electronics and 6) advanced space mining and manufacturing technologies416

11 February The Commercial Aviation Safety Strategy Team (CASST) announced a campaign to focus attention on ldquothe most pressing aviation safety problemsrdquo CASST was composed of the Air Transport Association Boeing Company Airbus Industrie the Air Line Pilots Association and the Aerospace Industries Association as well as major jet engine manufacturers General Electric Company Pratt amp Whitney of United Technologies Corporation and Rolls-Royce CASST identified the top safety issues needing improvement worldwide including controlled-flight-intoshyterrain accidents engine failures runway incursions and maintenance errors CASST recommended working to reduce these safety hazards as well as implementing technologies to detect in-flight turbulence417

12 February Elizabeth H Moore Head of the Art and Archaeology Department of the School of Oriental and African Studies the University of London and Anthony Freeman a radar scientist at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) discussed new radar imagery of Angkor Cambodia during a

415 NASA ldquoShock Wave Sheds New Light on Fading Supernovardquo news release 10 February 1998 John Noble Wilford ldquoRing of Fire Could Hold Clues to Events Leading to Supernovardquo New York Times 11 February 1998 Associated Press ldquoBright Exploding Star of 1987 Readies a Reprise of Fireworksrdquo Washington Post 11 February 1998 416 Sean Holton ldquoReport NASA Should Work More on New Technologyrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 11 February 1998 417 Tim Dobbyn for Reuters ldquoAviation Industry Unveils Safety Prioritiesrdquo 11 February 1998

118


press briefing at JPL The researchers announced that the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) developed by JPL to produce radar maps had helped them to detect and locate a distribution of prehistoric mounds and undocumented temples to the northwest of Angkor The three-dimensional maps created using radar interferometry revealed evidence of temples and earlier civilization that were absent or incorrectly marked on modern topographic maps and early twentieth-century archaeological reports These discoveries brought into question long-standing ideas about the urban evolution of Angkor The 1996 AIRSAR Pacific Rim Deployment on board a NASA DC-8 jet was a follow-up to a 1994 study of Angkor that used Spaceborne Imaging Radar-CX-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-CX-SAR) on board Space Shuttle Endeavour during Mission STS-59 producing the radar images used to create the three-dimensional maps Unlike SIR-CX-SAR AIRSAR had P-band with a longer wavelength able to penetrate the forest canopy AIRSAR also flew in a mode that allowed it to measure topography and create three-dimensional images of the surface418

As part of the Small Business Innovation Research Program NASA officials chose more than 300 research proposals to share US$23 million in funding Out of 28 award categories 21 focused on space-based applications such as achieving routine space travel exploring and settling the solar system and developing new technologies in astrobiology The range of topics indicated that research associated with high-profile space transportation and exploration efforts curtailed because of cuts in NASArsquos 1999 budget would continue on a smaller scale419

The Voyager 1 spacecraft became the most distant human-made object in space at 65 billion miles (11 billion kilometers) from Earth At 210 pm (PST) the Voyager 1 spacecraft surpassed the distance of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft which was traveling in the opposite direction Voyagerrsquos signal took 95 hours to reach Earth The spacecraft had to rely on radioisotope thermal electric generators because at the far edge of the solar system very little solar power was able to reach itmdashat that distance the Sun is only 15000th as bright as it is on Earth Edward C Stone a Voyager scientist and Director of NASArsquos JPL remarked ldquothe fact that the spacecraft is still returning data is a remarkable technical achievementrdquo NASA had launched Voyager 1 from Cape Canaveral Florida on 5 September 1977420

Wesley T Huntress Jr announced that he would resign from NASA in the near future As NASArsquos Associate Administrator for Space Science Huntress had been responsible for programs in astrophysics planetary exploration and space physics NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin credited him with the revitalization of NASArsquos Space Science Enterprise in particular with overseeing critical components of the program such as the HST and Mars Pathfinder Huntress had joined NASArsquos JPL in the 1960s a research scientist specializing in ion chemistry and planetary atmospheres and NASA had appointed Huntress to head the Office of Space Science in March 1993 In his retirement announcement Huntress stated ldquoI have served in this position for more than five years now and it is simply time to move onrdquo421

418 NASA ldquoNew Insights into Ancient Angkor by NASA Radar To Be Subject of Press Briefingrdquo news release N98-11 5 February 1998 NASA ldquoNASA Radar Reveals Hidden Remains at Ancient Angkorrdquo news release 98-28 12 February 1998 Jane E Allen for Associated Press ldquoUnseen Angkorrdquo 12 February 1998 419 Anne Eisele ldquoSmall Business Grants Span Range of NASA Goalsrdquo Space News 23 Februaryndash1 March 1998 420 NASA ldquoVoyager 1 Now Most Distant Human-Made Object in Spacerdquo news release 98-30 13 February 1998 Los Angeles Times ldquoVoyager 1 Becomes Mankindrsquos Farthest Object from Earthrdquo 18 February 1998 421 NASA ldquoHuntress Announces His Departure from NASArdquo news release 98-31 18 February 1998

119


19 February The Soyuz landing capsule carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a French astronaut returning from Mir landed safely in the snow and bitter cold (-22degF or -30degC) about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the northern Kazakhstan village of Arkalyk Only one of eight rescue helicopters was able to meet the crew because of wind clouds and thick snow limiting visibility to less than 160 feet (49 meters) Anatoly Y Solovyev and Pavel V Vinogradov returned to Earth after a six-month mission on Mir During their stay on Mir the cosmonauts had focused on repairing the aging space station Leacuteopold Eyharts returned to Earth with six salamanders The two cosmonauts who had replaced Solovyev and Vinogradov had flown the salamanders to Mir carrying them on board the space station in January While in space Eyharts had conducted experiments on the salamanders including monitoring the effects of antigravity on the reptilesrsquo egg-laying capabilities422

20 February This date marked Mirrsquos 12th birthday Russian Space Agency cosmonauts Kazakh Talgat A Musabayev and Russian Nikolai M Budarin and US astronaut Australian-born Andrew S W Thomas took a 45-minute trip outside the space station moving the escape capsule to the other side of Mir to make space for the next cargo craft to dock Ground controllers briefly lost contact with the crew when Mir lost its connection to a communications satellite For the first time Thomas wore the Russian-made spacesuit that had been too small when he first arrived at the space station423

21 February After two delays one because of mechanical problems the other because of strong winds a Japanese H-2 rocket blasted off from Tanegashima Space Center carrying a US$370 million communications satellite intended to conduct a three-year series of communications and broadcast tests However an engine breakdown prevented the satellite from entering a geostationary orbit instead the launch left the satellite floating in space useless for its intended mission Engineers were looking for ways to rescue the mission424

The Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame inducted into its roll of honors James B Odom an engineer at NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) who had served NASA for 33 years in the International Space Station Space Shuttle and HST programs The Hall of Fame also honored Marshallrsquos X-ray Calibration Facility which had tested and calibrated x-ray telescopes since the 1970s MSFCrsquos X-ray Calibration Facility supported the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility in achieving a resolving power 10 times greater than any previous x-ray telescope425

24 February

422 Shavkat Rakhmatullayev for Reuters ldquoFocus Russia-France Space Crew Returns to Deep Coldrdquo 20 February 1998 423 Associated Press ldquoBRFmdashMirrdquo 20 February 1998 Adam Tanner for Reuters ldquoFocus Mir Marks 12th Birthday with Brief Excursionrdquo 20 February 1998 424 Mari Yamaguchi for Associated Press ldquoJapan-Satelliterdquo 21 February 1998 425 Huntsville Times (AL) ldquoMSFC Facility Ex-official To Be Laudedrdquo 21 February 1998

120


A US$35000 study commissioned by the Florida Space Business Roundtable revealed that commercial satellite companies did not favor Cape Canaveral as a launch site The Florida Space Business Roundtable presented its findings at the Florida Space Launch Symposium in Melbourne Florida In the survey executives from satellite manufacturing companies rated spaceports evaluating them in 11 categories such as their launch base facilities flight scheduling governmental red tape and on-site technical services The executivesrsquo favorite launch site was Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California and they selected Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China as the worst place to launch Floridarsquos spaceports did well in two categories but business executives considered red tape at those facilities a problem426

25 February NASA partially cancelled the Clark satellite program keeping only the US$13 million launch vehicle service portion of the contract with Lockheed Martin As reasons for the cancellation NASA cited cost overruns an uncertain launch schedule and questions concerning the effectiveness of Clarkrsquos instruments in orbit because its primary instrument had been ldquositting on the ground two years longer than plannedrdquo The intended mission of the program was to take black-and-white stereo images showing detail as small as 10 feet (3 meters) across for NASArsquos Office of Earth Science Enterprise (formerly the Office of Mission to Planet Earth) as well as for commercial customers NASA had paired the Clark satellite with the Lewis satellite However after its August 1997 launch the Lewis satellite had gone into a spin which controllers were unable to repair Consequently the Lewis satellite plunged into the atmosphere where it burned up427

26 February A valve in an air purifier on Mir overheated spreading smoke aboard the station Although the incident caused elevated carbon monoxide the levels continued to drop steadily The crew was not in danger but the incident was a reminder of the terrifying fire that had occurred last year when an oxygen generator burned for 14 minutes filling Mir with smoke and nearly causing the crew to abandon the station428

MARCH 1998

3 March Russian space officials cancelled a spacewalk after cosmonauts broke three wrenches on the last of 10 locks while trying to open a hatch The cosmonauts had intended to repair a damaged solar panel NASA rescheduled the spacewalk for April The incident further increased concerns about the safety of Mir429

5 March

426 Todd Halvorson ldquoSurvey Brevard Launch Sites Fail To Measure UpmdashSpace Coast Falls Short for Commercial Liftoffsrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 25 February 1998 427 NASA ldquoNASA Terminates Clark Earth Science Missionrdquo news release 25 February 1998 Justin Ray ldquoNASA Cans Clark an Imaging Satelliterdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 26 February 1998 428 Associated Press ldquoBRFmdashSmoke on Mirrdquo 27 February 1998 429 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 3 March 1998

121


At a news conference at Ames Research Center (ARC) NASA scientists announced that the Lunar Prospector spacecraft had found ldquoevidence of ice crystals sprinkled throughout the Moonrsquos shadowy north and south polesrdquo Alan B Binder a Lunar Prospector scientist stated that the team believed they had detected anywhere from 10 million to several 100 million tons of water over areas of 3600 to 18000 square miles (9300 to 47000 square kilometers) at the northern pole and 1800 to 7200 square miles (4700 to 19000 square kilometers) at the southern pole However the ice detected using a neutron spectrometer that scans the lunar surface for signs of hydrogen was not in the form of ice sheets but ldquopresent in small crystals mixed in with the moonrsquos rocky soil scattered across thousands of square miles in lunar polar regionsrdquo Although evidence of ice was quite strong the water signal was relatively weak Because the Moon is very dry scientists theorized that comets or asteroids colliding with the Moonrsquos surface had carried the ice to the Moon430

NASA named astronaut Eileen M Collins to command Space Shuttle Columbia on the upcoming Mission STS-93 in December 2008 Collins was the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission NASA had selected her as an astronaut candidate in 1990 and she had become an astronaut in July 1991 She flew her first mission aboard Shuttle Discovery in February 1995 On that mission Discovery came within 30 feet (9 meters) of Mir during a practice run for docking with the space station Collins was also the first woman ever to pilot a Space Shuttle flying Shuttle Atlantis in May 1997 to deliver British-born US astronaut C Michael Foale to Mir and to return astronaut Jerry M Linenger to Earth431

Russian cosmonauts aboard Mir located a lost wrench among 12 yearsrsquo worth of accumulated spare parts They used the wrench to loosen the bolt that had broken three wrenches earlier in the week preventing the two cosmonauts from undertaking a planned spacewalk432

10 March NASA officially declared Mars Pathfinder ldquodeadrdquo six months after its mission ended after getting no response to one last set of commands Pathfinderrsquos mission had ended on 27 September 1997 when NASA lost communication with the craft Pathfinder and its rover Sojourner had landed on Mars on 4 July 1997 and NASA had expected the two craft to ldquoliverdquo on Mars for only 30 days However Pathfinder had exceeded its mission by eight weeks and Sojourner had roamed the Martian terrain 10 weeks longer than the originally planned one-week operation433

12 March The X-38 atmospheric vehicle completed its first unpiloted test flight successfully Project Manager John F Muratore commented that the successful test was ldquothe culmination of two years of hard work by a team from the Johnson Space Center and the Dryden Flight Research Centerrdquo

430 NASA ldquoLunar Prospector Finds Evidence of Ice at Moonrsquos Polesrdquo news release 98-38 5 March 1998 Ruth Larson ldquoProbe Finds Signs of Water on Moon Prospect of Ice in Soil at Poles Tantalizes NASArdquo Washington Times 6 March 1998 Kathy Sawyer ldquoSpacecraft Finds Solid Evidence of Water at Moonrsquos Polesrdquo Washington Post 6 March 1998 431 NASA ldquoCollins Named First Female Shuttle Commanderrdquo news release 98-37 5 March 1998 Reuters ldquoWoman Air Force Officer To Command Shuttle CNNrdquo 4 March 1998 432 Reuters ldquoMir Cosmonauts Solve Mystery of Missing Wrenchrdquo 5 March 1998 433 Dan Whitcomb for Reuters ldquoScientists Declare Pathfinder Officially lsquoDeadrsquordquo 10 March 1998

122


NASA had created the X-38 which could hold up to seven passengers as an escape vehicle for the International Space Station (ISS) Described as a ldquowhale-shaped wingless vehicle with fins that look as if they were inspired by a 1956 Cadillacrdquo the X-38 was the first new spacecraft in more than 20 years to reach the flight-testing stage Engineers had designed a fully automated craft ldquoso that even badly injured crew members could climb in [the vehicle would] separate from the station and the vehicle would then serve as an ambulance using satellite-based navigation aidsrdquo to carry passengers directly back to a designated landing field on Earth434

NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin publicly acknowledged for the first time that the ISS would cost more than originally proposed with a revised cost of US$213 billion and would take longer to assemble than was initially planned with a revised completion date of December 2003 Since 1993 NASA had consistently reported that the cost of the ISS would be US$174 billion and had targeted a 2002 completion date The revised cost was 200 percent more than the original US$8 billion estimate in President Ronald Reaganrsquos 1984 proposal435

13 March New data from NASArsquos Mars Global Surveyor Mission provided insights into the planetrsquos deeply layered terrain its strong localized magnetic fields and the genesis and evolution of a Martian dust storm Scientists analyzed data collected in October and November 1997 publishing the first set of formal results in the 13 March 1998 issue of Science Mars Global Surveyor had used a variety of instruments to collect data The thermal emission spectrometer had mapped the temperature and opacity of the Martian atmosphere during the sandstorm and a camera had returned visual images of the stormrsquos effects The spectrometer had also obtained some infrared emission spectra of Marsrsquos surface indicating ldquothe presence of pyroxene and plagioclase minerals which are common in volcanic rocks with a variable amount of dust componentrdquo Surveyorrsquos magnetometer and electron reflectometer had measured strong localized magnetic fields on Mars A laser altimeter had collected data from Marsrsquos northern hemisphere revealing a flat surface becoming increasingly rough toward the equator Scientists had interpreted a variety of landforms in the Mars images including the northern polar cap and gigantic canyons ridges craters and shield volcanoes436

14 March Progress M-38 launched on a Soyuz-V rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying a 900-kilogram (2000-pound) propulsion unit Mirrsquos crew planned to attach the unit to the Quantum module of the space station The cargo craft also carried 1500 kilograms (3300 pounds) of repair tools replacement parts food and water437

Minnie the last living astro-chimp died of old age at forty-one-years-old Minnie had lived out her retirement at Holloman Air Force Base under the care of the Coulston Foundation Minnie an understudy for chimps Ham and Enos was the only female chimpanzee to train for the

434 NASA ldquoX-38 Atmospheric Vehicle Completes First Unpiloted Flight Testrdquo news release 98-44 12 March 1998 David Colker ldquoEmergency Space Vehicle Model Takes To Test Flightrdquo Los Angeles Times 13 March 1998 435 Larry Wheeler ldquoStation Cost Overrun Now Pegged at $6 Billionrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 24 March 1998 436 NASA ldquoNew Global Surveyor Data Reveals Deeply Layered Terrain Magnetic Features and Genesis of a Martian Dust Stormrdquo news release 98-45 13 March 1998 437 Spacewarn Bulletin no 533 1 April 1998 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx533html (accessed 20 October 2008)

123


Mercury Project in the early 1960s but she had never flown in space Ham had become the first chimpanzee in space when he had made a 15-minute suborbital flight in 1961 before Alan B Shepard Jrrsquos flight that May Enosrsquos orbital flight had been a precursor to John H Glenn Jrrsquos flight in February 1962438

17 March At the request of the United States Israeli officials arrested Ehud Tenenbaum the eighteen-yearshyold computer hacker who called himself The Analyzer along with two other Israeli teenagers Tenenbaum was ringleader of a group called Israeli Internet Underground Prosecutors accused the teenage hackers of breaking into US government and military computer systems including NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as well as into Israeli government computers and commercial and educational computer systems in the United States The FBI said that all three had admitted their involvement stating that they had worked in tandem with two juveniles in Cloverdale California439

A Progress cargo spacecraft delivering supplies to Mir veered off course while in automatic mode forcing the space stationrsquos crew to perform a manual docking Mission Control ordered Commander Talgat A Musabayev to perform the docking when the two craft were only 65 feet (20 meters) apart Musabayev steered the cargo craft smoothly and avoided repeating last Junersquos collision440

Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev responded to US criticism of Russian delays in constructing components of the ISS ldquoNASA [is] trying to lsquoconcentrate attention entirely on Russiarsquos difficultiesrsquo even though [NASA is] lsquothree months behindrsquo in constructing a laboratory modulerdquo Koptev stated that the Russian Space Agency had only received one-fifth of the US$100 million President Boris N Yeltsin had allocated for construction of the service module leading to a seven-month delay in the program In an effort to improve the Russian Space Agencyrsquos financial situation Vice President Albert A Gore Jr and Prime Minister Viktor S Chernomyrdin discussed the possibility of Russiarsquos launching more foreign commercial satellites with the condition that Russia would ldquokeep its promise to stop assisting Iranrsquos weapons programrdquo441

18 March NASA announced the arrest of ldquothe suspected leader of a group of computer hackers who broke into the network of a NASA laboratoryrdquo Law enforcement agents accused twenty-year-old Calldan Levi Coffman of Carson Washington suspected leader of a group called ViRii of infiltrating the networks of various corporations universities and other government agencies in addition to breaching the security of computer systems at NASArsquos JPL last June NASArsquos Computer Crimes Division had worked with other government agencies including the US Naval Intelligence Service the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the FBI to

438 Los Angeles Times ldquoMinnie Last of the Early US Space Program lsquoAstro-Chimpsrsquo Dies at 41rdquo 28 March 1998 439 Mike Billington for United Press International ldquoHacker lsquoConfederacyrsquo Hits Pentagonrdquo 20 March 1998 Michael J Sniffen for Associated Press ldquoUS-Israel-Analyzerrdquo 20 March 1998 Washington Post ldquoFive Teens Suspected of Hacking into Pentagon Computersrdquo 20 March 1998 440 Reuters ldquoFocus Technical Failure Mars Russian Space Dockingrdquo 17 March 1998 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 17 March 1998 441 Houston Chronicle ldquoRussian Official Blames NASA for Delaying Space Stationrdquo 18 March 1998

124


uncover a link between Coffmanrsquos group and Israeli hacker Ehud Tenenbaum known as The Analyzer Law enforcement officials suspected Tenenbaum of organizing a confederation of hacker groups including his own group and Coffmanrsquos group442

19 March NASArsquos Office of Earth Science Enterprise selected the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC and the University of Coloradorsquos Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics to conduct ldquoparallel six-month definition studies of a new small satellite to monitor variations in the amount of radiant solar energy that reaches Earthrdquo as part of the preparations for the Total Solar Irradiance Mission443

NASA officials appeared before a hearing of the US House Committee on Science and Technology to explain the increasing price tag of the ISS The anticipated cost of the ISS had increased to US$4 billion more than originally projected drawing ire from supporters and opponents alike NASArsquos new Associate Administrator for Space Flight Joseph H Rothenberg led the lawmakers through the reasons for the increasing budget explaining the series of revised out-year estimates He attributed part of the problem to cost overruns related to ldquorecurring schedule and budget problems with the Russian [S]pace [A]gencyrdquo and part to the fact that NASArsquos primary contractor the Boeing Company was already US$600 million to US$817 million over budget However Rothenberg stated ldquoonly a fraction of these revised out-year estimates are tied to actual overrunsrdquo444

At a NASA Advisory Council meeting at Marshall Space Flight Center Jay Chabrow an aerospace industry consultant presented findings of a study conducted to determine the true costs of assembling and maintaining the future ISS US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and other concerned lawmakers had tasked Chabrow and his seven-member team of private and government analysts with undertaking this investigation conducted over five months The analystsrsquo findings showed that the ISS could cost as much as US$6 billion more than NASA officials had estimated reaching a total of US$24 billion and that the outpost likely would not be ready to house a full crew until 2006 The report also provided estimates regarding the total cost of the space station over its entire lifetime The analysts projected that Space Shuttle missions to assemble the station resupply flights and staff operating the Shuttle from the ground would cost NASA US$94 billion The study also found that planned caps on congressional spending were unrealistic and that NASA and Boeing officials had been overly optimistic in their cost and schedule estimates Factors driving costs higher included Russian nonperformance software development and integration construction of a crew return vehicle and Boeing cost overruns The report did not account for further cost increases in the event of a total Russian pullout445

20 March

442 Associated Press ldquoNASA Hackerrdquo 18 March 1998 Billington for United Press International ldquoHacker lsquoConfederacyrsquordquo 20 March 1998 443 NASA ldquoTwo Studies Will Refine and Expand Solar Monitoring Taskrdquo news release 98-47 19 March 1998 444 Brett Davis ldquoSpace Station Costs Irk Congressrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 20 March 1998 Tamara Lytle ldquoUS Legislators Criticize Increasing Cost of NASArsquos Space Stationrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 20 March 1998 445 Wheeler ldquoStation Cost Overrunrdquo

125


Boeing Company announced plans to cut an additional 8200 jobs by the end of the year 2000 to streamline facilities to focus on manufacturing and assembly operations and to eliminate redundant laboratories The job cuts affecting work sites in Arkansas California and Texas included planned product phaseouts of the MD-80 and MD-90 and brought into question the future of the MD-11 As it shut down selected facilities including an electronic manufacturing facility and the Site 9 modification center Boeing planned to transfer thousands of employees involved with aircraft and missile systems reusable-space-systems support and satellites446

22 March NASA marked its second full year of ldquocontinuous human presence in Earth orbitrdquo aboard Russiarsquos Mir space station Shuttle Atlantis had launched on 22 March 1996 with US astronaut Shannon W Lucid aboard Lucid then spent 188 days in space an American record She was the second NASA astronaut to live aboard Mir Following her tenure an unbroken succession of astronauts John E Blaha Jerry M Linenger C Michael Foale David A Wolf and Andrew S W Thomas had spent time on Mir Norman E Thagard the first American astronaut to live on Mir had arrived in March 1995 spending 115 days on Mir before Lucidrsquos stay Nine months separated Thagardrsquos mission and Lucidrsquos Frank L Culbertson Jr head of NASArsquos cooperative human spaceflight program with Russia commented ldquoan unbroken presence has been extremely valuable to our having an awareness of what it takes to fly a space station to maintain an outpost on the frontierrdquo447

25 March The Boeing Company appointed Michael T Kennedy to a newly created position Vice President for the Boeing Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle and Delta IV Programs Since 1996 Kennedy had been Vice President of Delta III and had shown ldquohis ability to manage launch vehicle development effectively by bringing Delta III on line for its first launch this summerrdquo As Kennedy moved into his new position Boeing promoted Daniel J Collins to Program Director for Delta III and Jay L Witzling became Vice President of Delta II and Titan Programs Kennedy had joined Boeing in 1970 working on the Skylab Saturn SIVB Titan Delta SPACEHAB and ISS programs448

26 March An international team of researchers announced that observations of US satellites orbiting Earth had proven one of physicist Albert Einsteinrsquos theories correct In his general theory of relativity Einstein had predicted that a spinning body could curve space because the ldquospin of a body must change the geometry of the universe by generating space-time curvaturerdquo Einstein had called the phenomenon frame dragging but scientists came to refer to it as the Lense-Thirring effect naming it for two Austrian physicists who wrote that rotating celestial bodies such as the Sun ldquocreate a force that pulls space toward themrdquo Ignazio Ciufolini a physicist at Sapienza University of Rome and his colleagues used lasers to measure changes in the orbits of the Laser Geodynamics Satellite I or LAGEOS a NASA spacecraft and LAGEOS II a satellite belonging to NASA and the Italian Space Agency The research team observed changes that they could not

446 United Press International ldquoBoeing Cuts 8200 Jobsrdquo 20 March 1998 447 Mark Carreau ldquoNASA Marks Second Year in Orbit Continuous Human Presence in Space Accomplished Aboard Mirrdquo Houston Chronicle 21 March 1998 448 PR Newswire ldquoBoeing Selects Vice President for EELVDelta IV Programrdquo 26 March 1998

126


account for by the laws of gravity or tidal forces concluding that the Lense-Thirring effect exists The satellites launched in 1976 and 1992 were passive satellites dedicated exclusively to laser ranging In this process scientists had send laser pulses to the satellite from ranging stations on Earth measuring the round-trip travel time of the pulses The research team had analyzed data collected over a four-year period beginning in 1993449

27 March NASA awarded a contract worth US$148 million to Raytheon STX Corporation The five-year award included a one-year base period followed by four one-year options Contract services for providing federal information processing services at NASArsquos ARC included software development and maintenance engineering operations and maintenance network services analysis quality assurance and reviews450

Francersquos Aeacuterospatiale British Aerospace Germanyrsquos Daimler-Benz Aerospace and Spainrsquos CASA partners in the Airbus Industrie airplane-manufacturing consortium announced their intention to merge into a ldquounified civilian and military aerospace conglomerate that would compete in the world market with US aerospace giants Lockheed Martin Corp[oration] and Boeing Co[mpany]rdquo The partners provided no details regarding how the merger would take place but the public statement represented ldquoanother move toward a unified European aerospace industryrdquo an idea that had been elusive ldquobecause of the competing national interests of the various countriesrdquo451

30 March Astronomers at the University of Manchester in England and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) announced that six radio telescopes in concert with the HST had ldquocaptured the first image ever recorded of an unbroken lsquoEinstein ringrsquordquo a ldquocircle of light created by the gravitational warping of space between a very distant galaxy and the earthrdquo Physicist Albert Einsteinrsquos general theory of relativity had predicted that ldquolight from a distant object would travel a curving path if it passed close to a massive object along the line of sight from Earthrdquo The radio image showed a fragmented group of bright arcs but the HST showed that the galaxyrsquos infrared emission region was perfectly in line with the gravitational lens and Earth confirming the existence of the Einstein ring452

APRIL 1998

1 April In a spacewalk lasting nearly 7 hours Mir cosmonauts failed to stabilize the solar panel damaged in a collision in 1997 Russian space officials had postponed this spacewalk from 3 March when the crew had been unable to unlock the hatch breaking three wrenches in their attempts Russian Space Agency cosmonauts Kazakh Talgat A Musabayev and Russian Nikolai M Budarin spent most of the spacewalk setting up a handrail left outside the space station by the previous crew

449 NASA ldquoEarth Dragging Space and Time as It Rotatesrdquo news release 98-51 27 March 1998 Reuters ldquoEinstein Proved Right Yet Againrdquo 26 March 1998 450 NASA ldquoNASA Awards $148 Million Contract to Raytheon STX Corprdquo contract announcement 27 March 1998 451 Tim Smart and Anne Swardson ldquoEuropean Space Firms Agree To Mergerdquo Washington Post 28 March 1998 452 Malcolm W Browne ldquolsquoEinstein Ringrsquo Caused by Space Warping Is Foundrdquo New York Times 31 March 1998

127


After struggling to unfold and assemble the handrail the pair only had enough time to install one of two footrests The cosmonauts returned to Mir after the elapse of 6 hours and 40 minutes their oxygen tanks only held approximately 7 hours of air Russian Mission Control had intentionally turned off the audio system during most of the spacewalk Officials said that Mission Control would no longer allow journalists to listen to radio traffic between Mission Control and spacewalkers because reporters had become overly critical Russian officials accused reporters of exaggerating problems on the space station despite the fact that Mir had been operating relatively trouble free for several months before this spacewalk453

An Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying a NASA satellite to study solar events that could endanger astronauts and spacecraft The Small Explorer (SMEX) satellite program under the management of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center had developed the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) satellite454

2 April Eberhard R M Rees deputy and later successor to Wernher von Braun as ldquochief of American rocketry effortsrdquo died at age 89 after suffering from Alzheimerrsquos disease Rees born in Germany had graduated from the Dresden Institute of Technology in 1934 with an advanced degree in mechanical engineering He had worked as a technical plant manager with the German Guided Missile Center beginning in 1940 but after Germanyrsquos defeat in World War II Rees became one of 118 scientists who surrendered to the West under the so-called Project Paperclip becoming a US citizen in 1954 In the United States he had first worked at White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico ldquowhere he shared his expertise on the V-2 a German rocket-propelled bomb and on guided missile projectsrdquo In 1950 Rees had moved to Huntsville Alabama to serve as Deputy Chief of the Guided Missile Development Division at Redstone Arsenal Among the projects Rees had managed were the Hermes II Project the Redstone and Jupiter missile programs the Explorer satellite project and the Saturn program Between 1956 and 1960 Rees had been Deputy Director of the US Army Ballistic Missile Agencyrsquos Development Operations Division He had received a Distinguished Service Medal from NASA for his role in the Apollo 11 Mission Rees had succeeded Wernher von Braun as Director of NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center in 1970 retiring in 1973455

3 April The Organization of American Historians presented the 1998 Richard W Leopold Prize to Andrew J Butrica for his book To See the Unseen A History of Planetary Radar Astronomy The organization awarded the biennial Richard W Leopold Prize ldquofor the best book written by an historian connected with federal state or municipal government in the areas of foreign policy military affairs the historical activities of the federal government or biography in one of these areasrdquo Butricarsquos book a comprehensive history of planetary radar astronomy was a

453 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoMir Crew Undertakes Six-Hour Spacewalk To Repair Solar Panelrdquo 1 April 1998 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 2 April 1998 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoMir Crew Runs Out of Time Fails To Stabilize Solar Panelrdquo1 April 1998 454 Associated Press ldquoBRFmdashSatellite Launchrdquo 2 April 1998 PR Newswire ldquoOrbitalrsquos Pegasus Rocket Successfully Launches TRACE Spacecraft for NASA Advanced SMEX Satellite Will Study the Sun Spacecraftrsquos First Signals Indicate Early Successrdquo 2 April 1998 455 Ford Burkhart ldquoEberhard Rees Rocketry Pioneer Dies at 89rdquo New York Times 4 April 1998

128


publication of the NASA History Series produced by the NASA Headquarters History Divisionrsquos Office of Policy and Plans456

6 April NASA released images recorded by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft showing the Cydonia region of Mars in 10 times more detail than that provided in the images recorded more than 20 years ago by one of the US Viking space probes In the new images the Sun was shining from the opposite direction than in the images recorded by the Viking probe Vikingrsquos images had revealed a surface formation in the hilly desert area Cydonia which some members of the public believed to be a monumental sculpture of a humanoid face in spite of NASA scientistsrsquo insistence that the ldquofacerdquo was only a common geological formation called a mesa Some of those people who believed the structure to be a sculpture had accused NASA of manipulating data in a conspiracy to keep the origins of the face a secret Surveyorrsquos new images confirmed NASArsquos previous analysis of the formation However in an effort to counteract the conspiracy rumors NASA posted on the Internet the raw data sent by Mars Global Surveyor and took no official position regarding what the images did or did not reveal Several planetary scientists remarked that ldquothe new image contained no surprises and no evidence of artificial originrdquo457

Cosmonauts Talgat A Musabayev and Nikolai M Budarin trying for a third time successfully stabilized a bent solar panel during a spacewalk of 4 hours and 15 minutes The solar panel was only one of 10 nonfunctioning panels The crew had not intended to repair the damaged panel fully but only to stabilize it so that it would not break loose and hit the space station The cosmonauts cut short the spacewalk scheduled to take 5frac12 hours when the thruster engine aligning Mir with the Sun ran out of fuel Forced to return to the space station early the cosmonauts were unable to remove some scientific equipment attached to the outside of the station458

7 April The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that Europersquos Infrared Space Observatory which had been orbiting Earth for two and one-half years had located water in unexpected places The most intriguing of these was the water vapor detected in the atmosphere of Saturnrsquos largest moon Titan ESA Director of Science Roger M Bonnet remarked ldquothe moon may duplicate the conditions that led to the creation of life on Earth and the only thing you need is a little heat to heat up Titan maybe [the] birth of life may be seenrdquo Chairperson of ESArsquos Astronomy Working Group Reinhard Genzel said that the Observatory had ldquoenabled scientists to see water throughout the universerdquo and that the water was likely brought ldquoto the icy outer planets by cometsrdquo He explained further that comets might have deposited the water on Earth during the early formation of the solar system when many comets constantly collided with the Earth459

8 April

456 NASA ldquoNASA History Wins Prestigious Prizerdquo news release 98-53 3 April 1998 457 Robert Lee Hotz ldquoCalifornia and the West Alien lsquoFacersquo Recedes into Martian Myth Space NASA Photo Appears To Show a Naturally Weathered Mesardquo Los Angeles Times 7 April 1998 Kathy Sawyer ldquoWith Mars Images NASA Says Face It Itrsquos a Mesardquo Washington Post 7 April 1998 458 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoMir Crew Shortens Spacewalk After Thruster Fuel Runs Outrdquo 7 April 1998 459 Edith M Lederer for Associated Press ldquoEurope-Space Waterrdquo 7 April 1998 Washington Times ldquoEuropersquos Space Surveyor Finds Water Vapor Near Stars Planetsrdquo 8 April 1998

129


NASA announced the selection of nine researchers to form the Science Team for the Mars Microprobes ldquoa technology validation mission that will hitchhike to the [R]ed [P]lanet aboard NASArsquos 1998 Mars Polar Lander missionrdquo NASA intended the probes to collect data measuring thermal and physical properties of the soil while searching for the presence of water ice The nine selected scientists were David C Catling Julio A Magalhaes Jeffrey E Moersch James R Murphy and Aaron Zent of NASArsquos Ames Research Center Ralph D Lorenz of the University of Arizona Paul Morgan of Northern Arizona University Bruce C Murray of California Institute of Technology and Marsha Presley of Arizona State University460

9 April US astronomers studying star formation reported that a body resembling a pinkish star at the center of the sword in the constellation Orion was ldquoa hotbed of star formation called the Orion Nebulardquo the site of a gas cloud generating enough water ldquoto fill the Earthrsquos oceans 60 times a dayrdquo The team of astronomers led by Martin O Harwit of Cornell University used the Infrared Space Observatory to observe the Orion Nebula detecting ldquolarge amounts of water vapor within clouds of gas on their way to becoming stars in the nebulardquo The discovery which demonstrated for the first time ldquothe vital role that water plays in star formationrdquo may ldquoprovide an important clue about the source of water in the [s]olar [s]ystemrdquo Michael Werner of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) emphasized the significance of the discovery saying that the data confirmed ldquothat water is prevalent in spacerdquo and ldquoplays a vital role in the chemistry and physics of interstellar cloudsrdquo461

15 April At a Kennedy Space Center (KSC) news conference Space Shuttle Program Manager Thomas W Holloway announced that an astronautrsquos error had caused a US$10 million solar satellite to malfunction after Space Shuttle Columbia released the satellite in November 1997 during Mission STS-87 An investigation revealed that astronaut Kalpana Chawla had not sent the Spartan satellite a key signal to activate itself Chawlarsquos efforts to recapture Spartan with the Shuttlersquos robotic arm had sent the satellite spinning and two astronauts had to undertake a spacewalk to retrieve it The review panel comprising both external experts and NASA staff found that Chawlarsquos crewmates ldquocould have helped her verify the commandrdquo but did not do so ldquobecause such vigilance was not part of the planrdquo The panel made nine major recommendations intended to help both the Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) programs Holloway announced that in response to the boardrsquos findings NASA would make numerous changes to training computers and procedures462

16 April James K Yungel a NASA scientist studying Earth remote sensing discussed a joint project underway at Monterey Peninsula Airport involving NASA the US Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The researchers had parked at the airport a

460 NASA ldquoScience Team Chosen for Technology Validation Mission To Explore the Subsurface of Marsrdquo news release 98-59 8 April 1998 461 Elizabeth Manning for United Press International ldquoMassive Water Find Linked to Star Birthrdquo 9 April 1998 462 Craig Covault ldquoShuttleSpartan Verdict Sparks Station Concernsrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 148 no 16 (20 April 1998) 26 Seth Borenstein ldquoAstronaut Gets Blame Lack of a Signal Causes Satellite To Failrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 16 April 1998

130


Twin Otter airplane with a scanning laser system and a global-positioning-satellite receiver to make precise measurements of the West Coast mapping the changes El Nintildeo had caused along the coastline The goal of the survey was to create ldquothe most highly detailed map yet of the West Coastrdquo increasing scientistsrsquo ability to predict erosion over the next decade463

Jeremy Lin of Taiwanrsquos Academia Sinica Institute and colleagues at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro New Mexico reported in the journal Nature that measurements taken with the worldrsquos largest radio telescopesmdashthe Very Large Array (VLA)mdash had detected ldquopeculiar bulges in the atmosphere of a giant starrdquo Huge plumes of gas thrust from beneath the surface of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse had likely caused the bulges Betelgeuse is located in the shoulder of the constellation Orion about 430 light-years from Earth The research team used the Y-shaped 22-mile-wide (35-kilometer-wide) cluster of 27 huge antennas of the VLA telescopes to capture the most detailed radio image ever taken of a star other than the Sun The team discovered that some of the gas in the starrsquos atmosphere was much cooler than previously believedmdashabout 5750degF (3200degC) The discovery of the lower temperatures enabled astronomers to understand ldquohow huge amounts of dust are constantly blown away from the starrdquo Before the lower temperatures were identified scientists had not been able to explain how the stellar dust formed because at ldquohigher temperatures the dust could not condense from the hot gas expelled from the starrsquos interiorrdquo Astronomers believe that dust created and expelled by stars like Betelgeuse ldquois distributed throughout the universe and provide[s] the raw materials that gave rise to life on Earthrdquo464

17 April After problems with one of two network-signal processors caused a 24-hour delay Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-90) blasted off on the Shuttle programrsquos final Neurolab mission carrying 26 experiments for basic research in neurosciences to ldquoexpand understanding of how the nervous system develops and functions in spacerdquo Test subjects aboard the Shuttle included crew members rats mice crickets snails and two kinds of fish The Neurolab mission was the joint effort of NASA several US partners the space agencies of Canada France and Germany the ESA and the National Space Development Agency of Japan Crew members included Commander Richard A Searfoss Pilot Scott D Altman Mission Specialists Richard M Linnehan Dafydd Rhys ldquoDaverdquo Williams and Kathryn P Hire and Payload Specialists Jay C Buckey Jr and James A Pawelczyk Mission Specialist Hire was the first KSC employee that NASA had selected as an astronaut candidate Mission STS-90 was Columbiarsquos 25th flight465

21 April Two scientific teams independently studying HR 4796 a star in the southern constellation Centaurus announced they had captured ldquothe strongest evidence yetrdquo of a new group of planets forming around the star The teams used the 10-meter (33-foot) W M Keck II Telescope on top of the extinct Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii and the National Science Foundationrsquos 4-meter

463 Michael McCabe ldquoNASA Mapping West Coast in Wake of El Nintildeo Most Rigorous Survey Ever Should Help Predict Erosionrdquo San Francisco Chronicle 17 April 1998 464 Malcolm W Browne ldquoAtmosphere Bulges on None-Too-Distant Starrdquo New York Times 21 April 1998 465 NASA ldquoNeurolab Shuttle Mission To Launch April 16rdquo news release N98-25 3 April 1998 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-90rdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-90html (accessed 11 June 2007)

131


(13-foot) Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile Using both of these sensitive new instruments the research teams believed they could see clearly through the glare of the star a planet-forming disc of gas and dust A third international team of British and American astronomers released the first images of the huge discs which appeared to be forming around two other stars Fomalhaut and Vega the star made famous in the novel and movie Contact The third team used the 15-meter (49-foot) James Clerk Maxwell Telescope also atop Mauna Kea Scientists considered the discoveries of the discs around the stars a missing link in the study of planetary system formation offering them clues about the formation of rocky planets like Earth466

22 April An international group of computer hackers calling itself Masters of Downloading or MOD announced that it had stolen key software programs from NASA The same group had previously broken into the Pentagonrsquos Defense Information Systems Network claiming to have stolen enough information to ldquolsquotake controlrsquo of military satellites and other systemsrdquo Although US Department of Defense officials said that MOD had downloaded an application for management and record keeping not for ldquoanything that could perform a control functionrdquo the group claimed that its cyber attack on NASA had ldquostripped the US space agency of its chief defense against computer intrusionrdquo MOD had sent the stolen samples of NASA software to a computer expert who maintained a Web site devoted to information-security issues The group which included at least two Russian members asserted that it had broken into NASArsquos system through JPL to obtain the software samples and threatened to sell the information to international terrorist groups or foreign governments467

23 April The Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force an independent task force convened at the request of NASA and charged with analyzing the cost and schedule of constructing and maintaining the ISS released its official report The task force concluded that ldquoprogram size complexity and ambitious schedule goals were beyond that which could be reasonably achieved within the [US]$21 billion annual cap or [US]$174 billion total caprdquo The task force concluded that ldquothe International Space Station will be delayed by up to three years and cost as much as [US]$250 million more per year relative to the FY 1999 budget submissionrdquo recommending that NASA ldquorevise the current [s]tation plan so that it is achievable with the funds availablerdquo NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin who had appointed Jay Chabrow to lead the task force told members of the US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies that he would not accept the task forcersquos conclusions because he had not yet fully reviewed the report Goldin told the panel that everyone involved in the space station program was very concerned about cost overruns and schedule slips but that if Congress imposed a cap on ISS funding it could affect the schedule significantly delaying the project up to two years Goldin warned ldquosuch a funding shortfall would hurt relations with the international partnersrdquo The report also placed much of the blame for the budget and schedule issues on Russia In 1993 the Clinton administration and top officials at NASA had advised Congress that were Russia not involved in the project NASA would

466 Kathy Sawyer ldquoOh Baby Telescopes Show the Birth of a Solar System New Imaging Sharpens Delivery Room Viewrdquo Washington Post 22 April 1998 467 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoNASA Becomes Latest Victim of Masters of Downloadingrdquo 23 April 1998

132


ldquosave an estimated [US]$2 billion expand the stationrsquos capabilities and enable the research station to be completed soonerrdquo However the task forcersquos report concluded that ldquothose assumptions were faultyrdquo468

29 April Astronauts and physicians Jay C Buckey Jr and Dafydd Rhys ldquoDaverdquo Williams performed the first surgeries ever conducted on living specimens while in orbit The two doctors injected chemical markers into the hind legs of six of the surviving baby rats to determine the role of gravity in the development of muscles The crew anesthetized the baby rats before injecting them with the pink florescent chemical the first time scientists had performed such a procedure in zero-gravity conditions In addition to studying how muscles and nerves develop in space the crew studied whether anesthesia really works without the help of gravity whether patients have more difficulty recovering from anesthesia in space and how wounds heal in space Two other astronauts successfully completed ldquothe most difficult medical procedure ever attempted on someone in spacerdquo The astronauts guided tiny needles into the nerves behind their knees in an experiment aimed at understanding and easing the blood pressure problems and dizziness that astronauts suffer after returning to Earth An estimated 500000 Americans experience the same symptoms every day when they stand up The needle enabled the astronauts to ldquolistenrdquo to electrical impulses as the brain sent messages to the nerve469

MAY 1998

1 May At the 13th annual NASA Continual Improvement and Reinvention Conference on Quality Management NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin presented five aerospace companies with the 1998 George M Low Award NASArsquos highest ldquoquality and excellencerdquo award for contractors and subcontractors The companies representing both large and small businesses were ILC Dover Inc of Frederica Delaware Allied Signal Technical Services Corporation of Lanham Maryland DynCorp Johnson Support Division of Houston Texas BST Systems Inc of Plainfield Connecticut and Advanced Technology Company of Pasadena California Administrator Goldin said ldquothese companies exemplify excellence and outstanding achievements that prove beneficial to NASA and the [n]ationrsquos industryrdquo Associate Administrator for Safety and Mission Assurance Frederick D Gregory added ldquoeach of these companies has definitely made a positive impact on NASArsquos performance goalsrdquo470

2 May The Chinese Long March 2C rocket launched two US satellites into orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province in northern China The satellites were part of a

468 NASA Advisory Council ldquoReport on the Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force on the International Space Stationrdquo 21 April 1998 httphistorynasagov32999pdf (accessed 24 September 2007) Larry Wheeler ldquoRussiarsquos Role in Station Has Project over Budget Behind Schedulerdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 24 April 1998 Aerospace Daily ldquoGoldin Not Sold on Report Finding Space Station Overrunsrdquo 24 April 1998 469 Seth Borenstein ldquoShuttle Surgeons Hope Rats Will Surviverdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 29 April 1998 Steven Young for Reuters ldquoUS Shuttle Crew Performs First Space Surgeryrdquo 29 April 1998 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttlerdquo 30 April 1998 Robyn Suriano ldquoAstronauts Listen to Brain-Nerve Chatterrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 30 April 1998470 NASA ldquoNASA Awards Five Firms the George M Low Awardrdquo news release 98-74 1 May 1998

133


mobile telecommunications system that Motorola Corporation had developed for the Iridium World Communications network scheduled to begin commercial service on 23 September 1998 The Iridium contract had ldquoboosted Chinarsquos launching industryrdquo which had been ldquostruggling to recover from a string of launch disasters in 1995 and 1996rdquo471

3 May Returning from the Neurolab mission Space Shuttle Columbia landed smoothly despite a malfunctioning hydraulic unit Most of Columbiarsquos 1-hour-long descent relied on two hydraulic units because the cooling system for the third unit had failed To prevent the third unit from overheating the crew turned it on just minutes before landing After the landing Mission Control congratulated the Neurolab astronauts on ldquoa historic mission that elevated neuroscience research to record heightsrdquo During the 16-day Neurolab flight the team had accomplished a number of experiments never before performed in space including the first direct nerve recordings the first joint recording of sleep and breathing the first embalming of animals and the first surgery on animals Because only the rodents aboard Columbia were accessible during the flight astronauts and scientists did not immediately know how the other animals including fish snails and crickets had fared A quick inspection after landing however ldquorevealed that only 25 of 225 baby swordtail fish survived the mission a much higher mortality rate than expectedrdquo The baby rats also had a higher mortality rate than expected 52 of the 96 baby rats had died in orbit after their mothers refused to nurse them NASA veterinarians had expected a dozen deaths from natural causes Animal rights groups criticized the experiments472

6 May At a NASA news conference astronomers discussed the discovery of the largest explosion ever sighted in space The journal Nature published three papers about the event detected on 14 December 1997 The explosion a gamma-ray burst (GRB) designated GRB971214 had occurred 12 billion years ago and had ldquoapparently outshone all the rest of the universerdquo for about 40 seconds The Italian-Dutch orbiting gamma-ray observatory BeppoSAX had measured the sharp pulse of gamma rays and ldquopinpointed the position of the raysrsquo sourcerdquo The United Statesrsquo Compton Gamma Ray Observatory satellite had also detected the gamma-ray pulse and scientific institutions around the world had monitored the after-effects of the explosion Twelve hours afterward John R Thorstensen of Dartmouth College had used a 94-inch-diameter (49shycentimeter-diameter) telescope at Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona to detect a visible afterglow which lasted for about two weeks After the glow had faded the scientists had discovered a faint galaxy in the same location A team of American Italian and Indian astronomers led by two California Institute of Technology scientists used the Keck II Telescope in Hawaii to measure the distance from Earth to the source of the burst No theorists were able to explain the explosion and no existing models explaining GRBs could explain the amount of energy emitted from GRB971214 The scientists suggested the possibility that a superdense neutron star had

471 Associated Press ldquoChina Puts 2 Satellites into Orbitrdquo 3 May 1998 472 USA Today ldquoScientists To Study Effects on Crittersrdquo 4 May 1998 Paul Hoversten ldquoMissionrsquos Data Has Scientists Feeling Antsy Neurolab Analysis Begins Todayrdquo USA Today 4 May 1998

134


ripped apart as it disappeared into a neighboring black hole or that a violent merger of two black holes had caused the burst473

7 May The US House Committee on Science and Technology held a hearing about the International Space Station (ISS) project focusing on the independent Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force headed by Jay Chabrow NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin had selected Chabrow to lead the investigation into the cost of the ISS The task forcersquos findings concluded that the space station may cost US$7 billion more than the original estimate and may take two years longer than anticipated to complete Congressional supporters and opponents of the program questioned NASA officials about the projectrsquos cost and slipping timetable but officials indicated that they needed a few more weeks to study Chabrowrsquos report and were unable to say whether they agreed with his teamrsquos figures However Goldin acknowledged that Russiarsquos participation in the program was not working He also promised to provide Congress with a new assessment of costs and with assembly schedules by 15 June including estimates for continuing the project without critical Russian equipment House Committee on Science and Technology Chairperson F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) seemed mollified after Goldin had spoken However Sensenbrenner ldquochastised the Clinton administrationrdquo remarking that its failure to send a representative from the Office of Management and Budget to the hearing reflected ldquothe low priorityrdquo the administration placed on solving the problems facing the ISS program474

A US Air Force Titan IV rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Florida carrying a spy satellite Civilian observers speculated that the spacecrafts name was Orion and that it would ldquoplay an important role in listening in on foes of the United Statesrdquo With a wire mesh antenna the size of a football field the satellite was so sensitive that it could ldquodetect transmissions from a radio the size of a wristwatch or a very small cell phonerdquo The satellite could also monitor electronic transmissions between military bases At the time of the launch the Titan was the most powerful American booster in use475

Launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome a Proton-K Russian booster carried into orbit an American EchoStar IV communications satellite to relay broadcast signals to the central and western United States Lockheed Martin Corporation had built the satellite and under a partnership agreement between Lockheed and the Russian Khrunichev company International Launch Services launched the spacecraft476

10 May NASA dedicated as a US Air Force conference center the newly renovated historic control center Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida the site of the Mercury program launches The domed blockhouse with 10-foot-thick (3-meter-thick) reinforced concrete walls had protected launch controllers from possible explosions of Atlas rockets

473 Malcolm W Browne ldquoAstronomers Detect Immense Explosion 2d Only to Big Bangrdquo New York Times 7 May 1998 NASA ldquoMost Powerful Explosion since the Big Bang Challenges Gamma Ray Burst Theoriesrdquo news release 98-75 6 May 1998 474 Warren E Leary ldquoSpace Planrsquos Costs Increase amid Delaysrdquo New York Times 7 May 1998 Larry Wheeler ldquoGoldin Rips Russians Promises New Station Schedule by June 15rdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 7 May 1998 475 Robyn Suriano ldquoTitan Rocket Sends Spy Satellite into Orbitrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 9 May 1998 476 Associated Press ldquoUS Satellite Launched from Russian Rocketrdquo 9 May 1998

135


launched only 1000 feet (305 meters) away The renovation preserved the periscopes that controllers had used to safely view launches The control center was at the launch site of the first piloted orbital flight of astronaut John H Glenn Jr477

13 May The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California a new weather satellite the NOAA-K aboard a 34shyyear old converted Titan II nuclear missile The satellite was an Advanced Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS-N) weather satellite able to see inside clouds a feature that scientists expected would greatly increase our knowledge of how hurricanes develop and move The TIROS-N was the latest model of TIROS satellite in four generations Lockheed Martin had last built a TIROS satellite for NASA and NOAA in 1960 After the launch of the TIROS-N the satellite would undergo a series of tests by NASA followed by a round of tests by NOAA before becoming fully available in time for next yearrsquos hurricane season478

14 May At a NASA press conference Ethan J Schreier of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and his colleagues discussed new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images The new images showed in greater clarity an old galaxyrsquos black hole ldquofeeding on a smaller younger galaxy that collided with itrdquo The scientists explained that the new images revealed young stars in the midst of an ldquoobviously old galaxyrdquo suggesting that a collision had occurred The merged galaxy complex known as Centaurus A was about 10 million light-years away from the Milky Way The images taken with HSTrsquos newest infrared camera also showed gas and dust feeding an apparent large black hole An inner disc of gas swirling around the black hole was behaving in a manner opposite to scientists expectations based upon the behavior of other galaxies Hans-Walter Rix of the University of Arizona theorized that the collision could explain the difference postulating that the HST ldquomay have caught Centaurus A in the midst of trying to realign itself after its spiral companion plowed into itrdquo Schreier offered an alternative explanationmdashthat the mass of the merged galaxies was greater than the mass of the black hole causing the gravitational pull to warp the inner disc479

The Iridium World Communications system global digital wireless communications network completed a series of deployment missions with the launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California of five Iridium satellites aboard a Boeing Delta II launch vehicle The successful launch had completed the entire Iridium constellation ldquoin just twelve monthsrdquo The worldrsquos first global wireless telephone company scheduled its commercial service to begin four months following this last launch once it had completed integrating and testing the Iridium system480

18 May

477 USA Today ldquoCape Canaveral Restores Piece of Space Age Historyrdquo 11 May 1998 478 Justin Ray ldquoNew NOAA Weather Satellite Will Keep a Better Eye on Hurricanesrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 14 May 1998 Business Wire ldquoNationrsquos Newest Advanced Weather Satellite Built by Lockheed Martin Launched Successfullyrdquo 14 May 1998 479 Elizabeth Manning for United Press International ldquoHubble Reveals Feeding Black Holerdquo 14 May 1998 NASA ldquoHubble Provides Multiple Views of How To Feed a Black Holerdquo news release 98-71 14 May 1998 480 PR Newswire ldquoBoeing Delta II Rocket Places Iridium Satellites into Orbitrdquo 17 May 1998

136


NASA successfully tested a fuel tank made of a new metal mixture aluminum lithium never before used in major US manufacturing The tank made of the new alloy was 30 percent stronger and 5 percent lighter than the aluminum magnesium tanks in use since the days of the Apollo program The tank showed no leaks pressure bulges or other problems when loaded with 537000 gallons (2033000 liters) of liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel Lockheed Martin had developed the new fuel tank to help ensure that NASA would be able to haul large sections of the ISS into orbit481

19 May NASA astronauts presented four employees of Boeing Reusable Space Systems with the Silver Snoopy one of the most prestigious honors available to people working on NASArsquos Space Shuttle program Mark Brewer of the orbiter electrical-avionics team Jeffrey Lewis of the midshymodule-major assembly team Michael Argent of the external-tank umbilical and payload latch-assembly programs and Larry Echaves of the configuration-management team each received a letter of commendation a poster a certificate and a Silver Snoopy pin that had flown in

482space

The PanAmSat-owned Galaxy IV a five-year old communications satellite ldquolost its bearingsrdquo so that its antennas were not directed toward Earth causing the ldquoworst outage in 37 years since communications satellites first entered servicerdquo Most of the 45 million pagers in the United States were unable to function during the outage which ldquosevered electronic links vital to thousands of retailers news organizations and broadcastersrdquo PanAmSat officials said that an attitude-control mechanism failed for an unknown reason and a backup processor failed to turn on causing the satellite to rotate At that point hundreds of thousands of satellite dishes in the United States lost contact with Galaxy IV483

21 May Chryssa Kouveliotou of the Universities Space Research Association led a team of astronomers at NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center in confirming the existence of magnetars a special class of neutron stars with a magnetic field one thousand trillion times the strength of Earthrsquos The team calculated the strength of SGR1806-20 first discovered in 1979 by combining data from NASArsquos Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite and the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics484

John S Lewis Codirector of the Space Engineering Research Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson testified before the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics concerning the potential danger of nearby asteroids His testimony supported the idea that any asteroid colliding with Earth in the next 100 years could only be an asteroid not yet known to scientists Lewis argued that since an international scientific effort could identify such an

481 Seth Borenstein ldquoShuttlersquos New Fuel Tank Test a Successrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 19 May 1998 482 Romy Jacobson ldquoHailing the Right Stuff NASA Honors Boeing Workersrdquo Los Angeles Daily News 20 May 1998 483 Mike Mills ldquoSatellite Glitch Cuts Off Data Flowrdquo Washington Post 21 May 1998 484 UniSci Science and Research News ldquolsquoMagnetarrsquo Generates Most Intense Magnetic Field in Universerdquo 21 May 1998 C Kouveliotou et al ldquoAn X-ray Pulsar with a Superstrong Magnetic Field in the Soft Gamma-Ray Repeater SGR1806-20rdquo Nature 393 no 6682 (21 May 1998) 235ndash237 NASA ldquoStrongest Stellar Magnetic Field Yet Observed Confirms Existence of Magnetarsrdquo news release 98-87 20 May 1998

137


asteroid easily he advocated ldquoa systematic globally-coordinated search and characterization program that costs less than a single small space missionrdquo Such a search he argued would ldquogive us adequate warning of a threatened asteroid impactrdquo so that we would ldquohave ample time to design build test and deploy an effective defense against the threatrdquo485

The US House of Representatives approved Representative David Weldon Jrrsquos (R-FL) amendment to the US$271 billion defense authorization bill to protect funding for launch ranges In the past six years the US Department of Defense had diverted money which would have modernized US Air Forcendashcontrolled launch ranges to cover costs associated with overseas deployments such as ongoing operations in Bosnia Weldon stated that diverting funds away from the launch ranges was a ldquonational security issue as well as a critical issue for NASA and commercial spacerdquo Weldonrsquos amendment reserved US$2733 million for the Cape Canaveral Range in Florida and US$1091 million for the Western Launch Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California486

Scientists published a study in the journal Science using images from the Galileo probe as evidence that an ocean beneath the surface of Europa one of Jupiterrsquos moons was once warm and salty James K Crowley of the US Geological Survey stated that Galileo data showed that ldquosalt absorption patterns on Europa were similar to those on Earthrdquo Gary B Hansen a University of Hawaii geophysicist added the observation that ldquothe size of the salt bands on Europarsquos surface are continuous and stretch across much of the moonrdquo evidence of a salty ocean beneath the moonrsquos icy surface Jeffrey S Kargel also of the US Geological Survey commented on his colleaguersquos study in Science saying that salt is an important ldquopiece in the puzzlerdquo but in the absence of other evidence does not prove that a salty ocean lies beneath Europarsquos surface Scientists seek other evidence such as shifting ice plates cracks in the frozen surface and a magnetic field487

27 May Images released at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Boston showed what scientists believed was the first evidence of ice on Mars outside of the planetrsquos polar ice caps The images showed a 30-mile-wide (48-kilometer-wide) crater containing a discolored area measuring about 12 to 18 miles (19 to 29 kilometers) across the bottom of the crater Some scientists thought the discoloration indicated the presence of some sort of deposit possibly frozen mud or sand evidence that ice is present or was present in the past Others offered a different theory about the contents of the images volcanic activity could explain the apparent deposit in the crater The images from Mars Global Surveyor had 10 to 12 times better resolution than any previous image of the crater Arizona State University researchers made another announcement regarding Surveyorrsquos data the Arizona researchers believed that a ldquoconcentration of a rust-colored mineral along the Mars equator indicates it once had boiling hydrothermal vents and perhaps huge lakesrdquo The mineral hematite was the first clear evidence of widespread thermal activity on

485 Federal Document Clearing House ldquoAsteroids Perils and Opportunitiesrdquo government news release of testimony of John S Lewis before the US House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Washington DC 21 May 1998 486 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoBill Protects Launch Range Moneyrdquo 22 May 1998 487 Michael Kahn for Reuters ldquoJupiter Moon Might Have Salt OceanmdashUS Studyrdquo 22 May 1998 T B McCord et al ldquoSalts on Europarsquos Surface Detected by Galileo near Infrared Mapping Spectrometerrdquo Science 280 no 5367 (22 May 1998) 1242

138


Mars NASA officials added that the finding indicated that water ldquowas once stable at or near the surface and that Mars had a thicker atmosphere in its early history probably 4 billion to 6 billion years agordquo488

28 May At the American Geophysical Union meeting in Boston astrophysicists Alexander G Kosovichev of Stanford University and Valentina V Zharkova of the University of Glasgow in Scotland presented evidence confirming their ldquosolar-bomb theoryrdquo Using sequential images that the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft had captured the two scientists explained that 20 minutes following the rupture of a solar flare from the surface of the Sun ldquoa seismic wave front surges across the [S]unrsquos face like ripples from a stone thrown into a pondrdquo The SOHO images proved that solar flares not only release energy into the Sunrsquos atmosphere but also ldquotrigger huge waves of seismic energy that ripple through the [S]un like earthquakesrdquo489

At a NASA press conference a team of NASA and university astronomers presented an image captured with the HST discussing their conclusion that the image provides the first direct evidence of a planet in another solar system Previously scientists had been able to infer the existence of such planets by observing their gravitational effect on suns but were unable to see them with telescopes Located 450 light-years away in the Taurus constellation a binary star system the planet appeared to be at least twice the size of Jupiter Designated TMR-1C the planet orbited 130 billion miles (210 billion kilometers) from its parent stars Scientists considered TMR-1C young by planetary standards to be forming still490

Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev announced that Russia had found the funds needed to continue participating in the ISS project Although the Russian Cabinet had rejected Koptevrsquos request for additional funds a meeting with Finance Minister Mikhail M Zadornov and Deputy Prime Minister Boris E Nemtsov had led to an agreement that funding for the ISS would come from a ldquospecial budget sectionrdquo However the Russian Space Agency provided no details of the funding plan Koptev also announced that the Russian Space Agency might scrap the Mir space station in the fall a year ahead of schedule to make more cash available for the ISS Koptev suggested that the space agency would look for revenue sources outside of the government491

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) successfully tested the first of four linked identical telescopes of 82-meter (27-foot) diameters comprising the Very Large Telescope (VLT) The VLT is the worldrsquos largest and most advanced Earth-based telescope with a collective diameter equal to16 meters (52 feet) The telescopersquos ldquofirst lightrdquo images (its first astronomically useful images) met the design goals Exposures lasting up to 10 minutes confirmed that the telescopersquos tracking was very accurate and stable The ESO had built the new telescope in the Atacama

488 Sharon L Lynch for Associated Press ldquoMars Discoveryrdquo 28 May 1998 Washington Times ldquoMinerals Suggest Life in Marsrsquo Past Scientists Eye Water Signs for Answersrdquo 28 May 1998 489 Elizabeth Manning for United Press International ldquoSolar Flares Trigger Sunquakesrdquo 27 May 1998 A G Kosovichev and V V Zharkova ldquoX-ray Flare Sparks Quake Inside Sunrdquo Nature 383 no 6683 (28 May 1998) 317 490 Martin Merzer ldquoScientists Distant Planet DiscoveredmdashHubble Photo May Confirm Sighting Outside Solar Systemrdquo Miami Herald 28 May 1998 491 Associated Press ldquoRussia-Spacerdquo 29 May 1998

139


Desert in northern Chile where a dry atmosphere and stable climate guaranteed clear skies 350 nights of the year492

30 May A computer failure aboard Mir partially affected the space stationrsquos solar panels causing the panel to fail to generate sufficient electricity and requiring the crew to use the Soyuz capsule thrusters for steering To conserve energy the crew turned off nonessential equipment including the air conditioner and lights Although they replaced the computer with a new one the crew was unable to load the necessary software The crew feared the failure might delay Space Shuttle Discoveryrsquos launch to Mir planned for 2 June493

31 May NASArsquos Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) spacecraft captured a video of a ldquoshort-lived but extremely bright explosion in the atmosphere of the sunrdquo The explosion was 55000 miles (89000 kilometers) long 200 miles (322 kilometers) wide and traveled at a rate of 2 million miles (32 million kilometers) per hour The explosions overlapped each other and ldquosnappedrdquo releasing ldquovast amounts of energyrdquo as solar flares Solar flares cause magnetic disturbances that disrupt satellites and power supplies if directed at Earth In April NASA had launched the TRACE spacecraft with a telescope 10 times more powerful than any other telescope focused on the Sun The telescope studied the transitional region of the Sunrsquos atmosphere between the relatively cool surface of the lower atmosphere with temperatures of 6000degC (11000degF) and the corona or upper atmosphere where temperatures reach 17 milliondegC (35 milliondegF) The telescope was able to photograph ultraviolet light and to show temperature variations using false colors494

JUNE 1998

1 June The 16 countries involved in the International Space Station (ISS) agreed for the second year in a row to delay construction naming 2004 as the new target date for completion The delay was primarily the result of Russiarsquos inability to pay its share of the programrsquos costs NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight Joseph H Rothenberg said that the new five-year schedule was ldquoextremely tight and allows for few if any launch delaysrdquo NASA estimated that the space station would require 43 flights for its assembly two fewer flights than previously scheduled Under the revised schedule Russia planned to launch nine flights three fewer than originally scheduled and NASA intended to launch 34 Shuttle flights to transport parts one more than originally planned To save money Russia canceled construction of two life-support modules and a stowage chamber495

492 Financial Times (London) ldquoStaring Out Across 14 Billion Light Years Technology Very Large Telescope The Earth-Based VLT Brings a Twinkle to a European Astronomerrsquos Eyerdquo 4 June 1998 493 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoCosmonauts Replace Mir Computerrdquo 31 May 1998 Marcia Dunn ldquoMir Space Station Has a New ProblemmdashComputer Failure Causes Solar Panels To Turn from Sunrdquo Seattle Times (WA) 31 May 1998 494 Mark Prigg ldquoPhotos Reveal Sunrsquos Powerrdquo Sunday Times (London) 7 June 1998 Leonard Novarro for Reuters ldquoSolar Flare May Disrupt Worldwide Communicationrdquo 8 June 1998 495 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoSpace Stationrdquo 1 June 1998 New York Times ldquoSpace Station Partners Approve Assembly Delayrdquo 1 June 1998

140


2 June Space Shuttle Discovery Mission STS-91 launched on schedule from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida despite problems with the automatic steering system on Mir The Shuttlersquos mission was to retrieve the seventh and last American to live aboard Mir The dayrsquos temperature reached 97ordmF (36ordmC) during the countdown making it the ldquohottest launch day anyone could rememberrdquo The mood of the launch was tense because NASA had never tested the new lightweight fuel tank during flight According to NASA officials the new tank worked well Among the crew members aboard Discovery was Valery V Ryumin veteran cosmonaut and chief of the Russian operations in the ShuttlendashMir program The Russian Space Agency had selected Ryumin to inspect Mir so that Russian officials could make an informed decision regarding how long cosmonauts could safely continue to inhabit the space station Other crew members included Commander Charles J Precourt Pilot Dominic L P Gorie and Mission Specialists Wendy B Lawrence Franklin R Chang-Digraveaz and Janet L Kavandi For the first time the Shuttle carried the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) designed to search for dark and missing matter (antimatter) in the universe496

3 June At the request of US Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Bill Frist (R-TN) the US General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report analyzing the United Statesrsquo role in the ISS and the cost of the program GAO estimated that life-cycle costs could reach US$96 billion US$2 billion more than the 1995 estimate and that these costs could increase further because of the potential for changes in the program According to the report ldquoat the current estimated spending rate the program would incur additional costs of more than [US]$100 million for every month of schedule slippagerdquo The report cited as reasons for the cost increases schedule slippage delays in production of components the need for additional flights to and from the space station and NASArsquos decision to change its tracking requirement for space debris GAOrsquos report added as much as US$1 billion to the estimate overall including crew-return-vehicle testing and resupply flights not part of the original NASA estimate Although the report cited US Department of Defense as the only agency with appropriate tracking equipment its equipment would need as much as US$5 billion in upgrades to handle the new NASA requirements The report also highlighted other issues including insufficient staff at KSC to handle nine Shuttle launches per

497year

The Boeing Company announced the creation of a new subsidiary called Boeing Space Operations based in Houston Texas at the Johnson Space Center which would provide various

496 NASA ldquoDiscovery Launch to Mir on Mission STS-91 Set for June 2rdquo news release 98-85 20 May 1998 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-91 Ninth and Final ShuttlendashMir Dockingrdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttle shuttlemissionsarchivessts-91html (accessed 11 June 2007) Chicago Tribune ldquoCosmonauts Fix Mirrsquos Steering Now Shuttle Launch Can Proceedrdquo 2 June 1998 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoDiscovery Soars on NASArsquos Last Voyage to Mirrdquo 2 June 1998 Robyn Suriano for Gannett News Service ldquoCelebrated Cosmonaut Comes Out of Retirement for Shuttle Missionrdquo 1 June 1998 497 US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Station US Life-Cycle Funding Requirements Statement of Allen Li Associate Director Defense Acquisitions Issues National Security and International Affairs Divisionrdquo testimony before the House Committee on Science and Technology report no GAOT-NSIAD-98-212 24 June 1998 Armed Forces Newswire Service ldquoSpace Station Costs Higher than Expected GAO Saysrdquo 17 June 1998 Tamara Lytle ldquoSpace Stationrsquos Costs Trouble 2 GOP Senatorsrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 3 June 1998

141


services for government and commercial space operations Rick Stephens the president of the new subsidiary stated that the goal of Boeing Space Operations was to make Boeing ldquothe global provider of low-cost reliable commercially based space operations servicesrdquo498

Space Shuttle Discovery encountered its first malfunction during Mission STS-91 when the KU-band system failed to switch on after Discoveryrsquos crew deployed its antenna upon reaching orbit The KU-band downlink carries broadcasts with a high rate of data The system failure prevented the Shuttle crew from sending televised images or high rates of information to Mission Control This problem had never occurred before NASA spokesperson James Hartsfield stated that it was unclear whether the trouble originated with the antenna transmitter or other associated equipment Hartsfield also mentioned that the failure would ldquoprevent immediate analysis of data from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometerrdquo The S-band antennas worked normally and the crew was able to talk with ground controllers as usual499

4 June Space Shuttle Discovery docked successfully with Mir Upon the opening of the hatches astronaut Andrew S W Thomas officially ended his 130-day mission aboard Mir and became a crew member of Discovery The transfer also marked the completion of a total of 907 days of US astronaut presence aboard the space station Because of the Ku-band failure Russian cameras on Mir recorded the docking while Russian ground stations televised live the meeting of the two crews500

During a meeting at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin directed MSFC officials to draw up a new plan for meeting the goals of the Bantam Program The programrsquos original goal had been to develop by 2001 a rocket capable of launching 150-kilogram or 015-tonne (331-pound or 02-ton) payloads at a cost of no more than US$15 million None of the rockets developed with NASA funding would have met that cost target Bantam Program Manager Sherry Buschmann reiterated NASArsquos commitment to ldquoachieving a capability to launch small payloads frequently at an affordable costrdquo saying that the plan would meet a ldquolegitimate need within the science communityrdquo501

NASA announced the astronaut candidate class of 1998 including 8 pilot candidates and 17 mission specialist candidates and composed of 21 male and 4 female candidates Among the candidate class was teacher Barbara R Morgan the former understudy to Christa McAuliffe NASA had designated Morgan as Educator Mission Specialist in January 1998502

5 June

498 James Wallace ldquoBoeing Forms a New Unit To Boost Its Space Businessrdquo Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) 3 June 1998 499 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-91rdquo Pauline Arrillaga for Associated Press ldquoShuttle Soars Toward Final Mir Docking but Antenna Wonrsquot Send TV Signalsrdquo 3 June 1998 Aerospace Daily ldquoLightweight Tank Perfect on First Flight KU-Band a Problemrdquo 4 June 1998 500 NASA ldquo Mission Archives STS-91rdquo Steven Young for Reuters ldquoShuttle Collects Last US Astronaut from Mirrdquo 5 June 1998 501 Warren Ferster ldquoNASA Shifts Gears on Low-Cost Launcher Goldin Renews Commitment to Bantam Goalsrdquo Space News 8ndash14 June 1998 502 NASA ldquoNASA Names Astronaut Class of 1998rdquo news release 98-97 4 June 1998

142


Mark H Thiemens professor of chemistry at the University of California at San Diego and a team of researchers published a study in the journal Science disputing NASArsquos theory that a rock from Mars contained evidence of life NASA scientists had studied the rock found in the Allen Hills ice field in Antarctica concluding that some carbonate mineral structures in the rock were evidence that microbes had lived in the rock before it ldquoblasted away from Marsrdquo during the collision of Mars with an asteroid millions of years ago By contrast Thiemensrsquos researchers concluded that the chemical characteristics of oxygen inside the rock originated from the carbon dioxide and ozone of the Martian atmosphere The team explained that if a microbe had deposited the oxygen ldquothe chemical signature of the minerals would have matched that of oxygen in water not oxygen in the atmosphererdquo According to the team this finding did not provide final proof that the rock had never contained life However it provided a significant argument against NASArsquos theory controversial since its first proposal in August 1996503

Astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Discovery attempted but failed to fix the spacecraftrsquos high- speed data-transmission system NASA believed the source of the problem was in an electronics box in the cargo bay but stated that only a spacewalk would enable the crew to reach the box NASA Mission Operations representative Robert E Castle Jr remarked that even with a spacewalk the astronauts would probably not be able to repair the malfunction Because of the lack of the high-speed data transmission system scientists could not view the data that the AMS had collected Although the Shuttle had stored the data on board NASA was unable to determine whether the data was useful or whether the instrumentrsquos adjustment was correct504

6 June Cosmonauts working aboard Mir conducted the first of two tests using green fluorescent gas made from combining nitrogen acetone and biacetyl gases to search for leaks in the Spektr laboratory module damaged in a collision in June 1997 However they were unable to pinpoint the sources of any seepage Because Mir was nearing its decommission stage Russia planned no repairs in the event that the cosmonauts were able to locate the leaks precisely Instead the tests were intended as practice for finding leaks on the future ISS505

8 June Space Shuttle Discovery undocked from Mir carrying back to Earth Australian-born Andrew S W Thomas the last of seven US astronauts to live aboard the station and marking the completion of Phase I of the ISS program Before closing the hatches Mir Commander Talgat A Musabayev presented Shuttle Commander Charles J Precourt with a huge wrench that had been used in spacewalks and would be flown to the future ISS506

NASA officials announced that the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore Maryland which had operated the science program for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) since 1983

503 James Farquhar Mark H Thiemens and Teresa Jackson ldquoAtmosphere-Surface Interactions on Mars Δ17Ο Measurements of Carbonate from ALH84001rdquo Science 280 no 5369 (June 5 1998) 1580 Los Angeles Times ldquoNew Meteorite Study Casts Doubt on Theory of Martian Liferdquo 5 June 1998 504 Marcia Dunn ldquoDiscover Astronauts Unable To Fix Communications Linkrdquo Buffalo News (NY) 6 June 1998 505 Mark Carreau ldquoAstronauts Unable To Spot Mir Hull Breachrdquo Houston Chronicle 7 June 1998 Marcia Dunn ldquoTest Fails To Find Leaks in Mirrdquo Seattle Times (WA) 7 June 1998 506 Pauline Arrillaga for Associated Press ldquoDiscovery Undocks from Mir Completes Historic Last Linkuprdquo 8 June 1998

143


would also manage the science operations for the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) As one of the cornerstone missions of the Astronomical Search for Origins and Planetary Systems a major project within its space science program NASA expected the NGST ldquoto provide a critical follow-on to the Hubble Space Telescoperdquo With capabilities unavailable in existing ground-based or space telescopes the NGSTrsquos purpose was to observe the first stars and galaxies in the universe to understand better how the universe formed after the Big Bang After consulting advisory committees Wesley T Huntress Jr Associate Administrator for NASArsquos Office of Space Science had decided that the ldquomost cost-effective and scientifically sound way to proceedrdquo would be ldquoto expand the [Space Telescope Science] Institutersquos responsibilities to include the managementrdquo of the new telescope507

Michael I Mott NASA Associate Deputy Administrator (Technical) one of NASArsquos top three managers announced his decision to leave NASA to join Boeing Space Transportation in Seal Beach California as Vice President of Business Development Mott had served as NASA Associate Deputy Administrator since January 1994508

9 June The US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies responsible for allocating space funding voted to back funding for NASArsquos ISS obligations but ldquocautioned the space agency to control costs and ensure Russiarsquos commitment to the expansive projectrdquo The subcommittee voted for a US$136 billion budget for NASA for the fiscal year including US$23 billion for the space station Senate Subcommittee Chairperson Christopher Bond (R-MO) said that although the budget was US$150 million more than President William J Clinton had requested it was US$33 million less than NASArsquos 1998 spending level509

Research scientists working on a US$33 million experiment to search for antimatter in space spoke at a news conference announcing that the communication-system breakdown on Space Shuttle Discovery had ruined their tests The astronauts had been unable to repair Discoveryrsquos main antenna system which had broken shortly after launch rendering the Shuttle unable to transmit high-speed data or video back to Earth Scientists working on the project needed continuous high-speed data to calibrate the AMS which was searching space for rare subatomic particles known as antimatter However using a patchwork system they had only been able to receive a few minutes of data each hour which meant that although they could see that the AMS was working the spectrometer was not providing them with enough data to fine tune the magnet According to Project Manager James Bates the scientists had failed to accomplish their objectives because of the malfunction510

10 June

507 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Home for Next Generation Space Telescoperdquo news release 98-96 8 June 1998 508 NASA ldquoMichael I Mott To Leave NASArdquo news release 98-99 8 June 1998 509 Patrick Connole for Reuters ldquoUS Senate Panel Backs Space Station Cut Superfundrdquo 9 June 1998 510 Seth Borenstein ldquoShuttle Physics Testing Thwarted A Glitch Has Undermined an Antimatter Experimentrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 10 June 1998

144


Aerojet announced it had won a US$485000 contract to build a rocket injector for NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that would help JPL scientists develop propulsion technologies for NASArsquos Mars Sample Return Vehicle511

12 June Space Shuttle Discovery landed safely at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida at 2 pm (EDT) returning the US astronaut Australian-born Andrew S W Thomas to Earth after four and one-half months in space Thomas unlike some of his predecessors took the medical advice typically given to astronauts returning from a lengthy stay in space and allowed medical personnel to carry him off the Shuttle rather than attempting to walk on his own512

17 June NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin submitted a 29-page report to lawmakers of the US House of Representatives officially responding to ldquoan independent review panelrsquos damning assessment that the [ISS] could cost US$73 billion more than NASA estimatedrdquo The panel had also reported that NASA would likely complete the ISS more than four years behind schedule Goldin acknowledged significant budget and schedule problems but maintained that NASArsquos plan remained manageable despite its shortcomings513

19 June The US House of Representatives subcommittee responsible for allocating funding for the space program voted on a US$133 billion budget for NASA US$138 million less than President William J Clinton had requested and US$300 million less than the US Senate subcommittee had approved Subcommittee Chairperson Jerry Lewis (R-CA) stated that the House had reduced the budget allocation because NASA planned to fly fewer Shuttle missions in the next fiscal years and because of the delays in assembling the ISS Unlike the Senate the House did not vote to monitor the budget of the program by creating a separate account for space station funding514

Hughes Global Services Inc announced the success of its salvage mission to a stranded Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Ltd communications satellite The 38-ton (3500shykilogram or 35-tonne) AsiaSat 3 had remained stranded in a useless orbit since its December 1997 launch Asia Satellite Telecommunications had received US$200 million from insurers The insurers had told Hughes Global Services to find a new customer if the salvage mission was successful Asia Satellite Telecommunications had originally intended AsiaSat 3 to provide television and telephone service in Asia but the Russian-built launcher had malfunctioned and the satellitersquos orbit had gone awry rendering it useless Hughes Global Services had taken possession of the satellite implementing a ldquoseemingly improbablerdquo mission to salvage the spacecraft Hughes had sent the satellite around the Moon twice using the Moonrsquos gravity to help correct the satellitersquos orbit around the Earth and declared the salvage mission a success

511 Sacramento Bee (CA) ldquoAerojet Lands Contractrdquo 11 June 1998 512 Steven Young for Reuters ldquoUS Space Shuttle Returns with Last Mir Astronautrdquo 12 June 1998 513 Larry Wheeler for Gannett News Service ldquoNASA Chief Admits Space Station Project Has Major Woesrdquo 17 June 1998 514 Brett Davis ldquoHouse Panel Approves $300 Million Less for NASA Budget than Senate Panelrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 19 June 1998

145


even though the satellite was not stationary which would limit the number of customers who might lease or buy it515

Eighteen members of the US House Committee on Science and Technology submitted a letter to President William J Clinton urging him to ldquoabandon plans to reach an agreement in China on expanding space cooperation because of Beijingrsquos weapons transfers and human rights abusesrdquo The letter was the Housersquos response to a 29 April report in the Washington Times disclosing a plan to conclude a space cooperation agreement at the Beijing summit The article discussed a draft agreement calling for the free and unrestricted exchange of scientific data between NASA and the State Science and Technology Commission of China a key developer of weapons-related technology The lawmakers warning that the pact would increase the likelihood of Chinarsquos sharing technology with rogue states referred to a CIA report stating that China had aimed 13 of its 18 long-range strategic missiles at the United States These comments emphasized the concern of members of Congress that China constituted a direct threat to the United States Many opponents of the agreement insisted that the United States should not share with China technologies or applications that enemies of the United States might use against the American people or US interests516

James B Willet a nuclear astrophysicist who had worked for NASA died of cancer at his Maryland home Willet had worked for 20 years on the scientific staff of NASArsquos JPL in Pasadena California and for three years as JPLrsquos liaison to NASA Headquarters before joining the Space Research Association in 1993 At JPL Willet had acted as a science coordinator and team chief for the Galileo Mission Galileo was orbiting Jupiter at the time of his death Willet was also a field operations team leader for the Mars balloon-testing program and had conducted research in gamma-ray astronomy Willetrsquos duties as liaison officer involved him in the Voyager Ulysses and Pioneer programs517

NASA officials at Lewis Research Center (LERC) in Cleveland Ohio announced the new five-year collaborative program of LERC and Case Western Reserve University The programrsquos name the Glennan Microsystems Initiative honored the late T Keith Glennan the first NASA Administrator who had served from 1958 to 1961 Glennan was also President Emeritus of Case Institute of Technology forerunner of Case Western Reserve University Backed with US$16 million in federal funds and US$45 million in state funds the initiative planned to ldquodevelop and apply the technology known as microelectricomechanical systems for industry and for NASArdquo LERC planned to develop systems for use a decade into the future including power systems for the next space station518

20 June The Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (HAL5) a chapter of the National Space Society failed in its second attempt to become the first group of amateurs to launch a rocket into space The

515 Andrew Pollack for Associated Press ldquoRescue Effort Puts a Satellite in Viable Orbitrdquo New York Times 19 June 1998 Associated Press ldquoUS Satellitesrdquo 19 June 1998 516 Bill Gertz ldquoHouse Science Panelists Oppose Space Pact with Chinardquo Washington Times 24 June 1998 517 Buffalo News (NY) ldquoJames B Willet Nuclear Astrophysicistrdquo 20 June 1998 518 Jennifer Arend ldquoLewis Research Launches Effort To Develop Technologyrdquo Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH) 20 June 1998

146


society attempted to use a hot-air balloon from a NASA barge in the Gulf of Mexico to launch its rocket a launch concept known as a rockoon According to the rockoon concept a small rocket may ldquoobtain very high altitude because there is little air to slow it down during launchrdquo James A Van Allen had been the first to fly rockoons in the 1950s as part of a joint US Navy-University of Iowa project The US Navy had abandoned the technique after large ground-based sounding rockets became available NASArsquos MSFC signed a cooperative agreement with HAL5 in 1996 continuing the relationship for the High Altitude Lift-Off mission MSFC had supplied HAL5 with the barge helium for the balloon nitrous oxide for the rocket and some funds for materials HAL5 sought to ldquomake space more affordable for students amateurs experimenters and researchersrdquo NASA was examining alternate launch sites and methods in an effort to find ways of reducing the cost of rocket launches519

23 June The Lewis Spacecraft Mission Failure Investigation Board convened by NASA released its report explaining the reason for the spacecraftrsquos failure which had cost NASA more than US$70 million NASA had developed the Earth-orbiting spacecraft to test advanced scientific equipment and technology for measuring land surface changes The spacecraft launched on 23 August 1997 had failed to achieve stable orbit According to the boardrsquos findings faulty attitude-control equipment together with inadequate monitoring had caused the craftrsquos destruction upon reentry on 28 September The investigation board reported that the attitude-control system had not been tested or developed sufficiently NASA had adapted the system from an earlier design which had not taken into account the Lewis spacecraftrsquos spin axis The small project crew had been unable to monitor and control the craft adequately during the crucial early flight stage According to the investigation boardrsquos report this was the primary cause of the missionrsquos failure520

24 June US House Committee on Science and Technology Chairperson F James Sensenbrenner Jr (RshyWI) and ranking Representative George F Brown Jr (D-CA) submitted a letter to President William J Clinton requesting that he supply a plan within 30 days ldquodetailing how the [a]dministration expects to resolve the dire problems surrounding the International Space Stationrdquo The two members of Congress asked President Clinton to intervene with President Boris N Yeltsin to ldquoensure full Russian compliance with its stated commitments to the space stationrdquo In the aftermath of the announcement of the independent Cost Assessment and Validation Task Forcersquos findings on the ISS the members of Congress were attempting to rectify the inadequate budget submission They asked the President to ldquodirect the Office of Management and Budget to deliver a workable plan to Congress so that the relevant

519 HAL5 Project ldquoSpace Group Hopes To Launch First Amateur Rocket into Spacerdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 17 June 1998 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoSpace Buffs in Alabama Canrsquot Get Rocket Launchedrdquo 21 June 1998 William R Corliss ldquoChapter 4 Development of the First Sounding Rocketsrdquo in NASA Sounding Rockets 1958ndash 1968 A Historical Summary (Washington DC NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office 1971) httphistorynasagovSP-4401contentshtm (accessed 30 January 2008) 520 NASA ldquoLewis Spacecraft Failure Board Report Releasedrdquo news release 98-109 23 June 1998 Defense Daily ldquoNASA Blames Spacecraft Loss on Equipment Monitoringrdquo 24 June 1998

147


[c]ongressional committees can consider OMB numbers when crafting NASA appropriations and authorization billsrdquo521

At a hearing of the US House Committee on Science and Technology NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin defended NASArsquos purpose and role in the ISS project Representative Nicholas V Lampson (D-TX) advised Goldin that cost overruns and Russiarsquos failure to meet its agreement had caused some lawmakers to propose cancelling the space station Goldin responded that canceling the ISS would cancel human spaceflight relegate the United States to second-class power status and have international repercussions Lawmakers at the hearing asked Goldin to furnish NASArsquos proposal to overcome the problems associated with the ISS providing estimates of the amount necessary to complete the project Goldin refused to give specifics until NASA had evaluated several plans and calculated the cost of the alternative plans including contingency plans in the event Russia could not meet its commitment522

Controllers at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) sent routine commands to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) to maneuver the satellite Instead of responding correctly SOHO suddenly went into emergency Sun reacquisition mode (ESR) ldquoactivated when an anomaly occurs and the spacecraft loses its orientation toward the Sunrdquo Consequently NASA lost all communication with the satellite along with the ability to track it SOHOrsquos mission was to track ldquomajor solar activity that may induce power outages and interfere with radio TV and other signals from spacerdquo The mission was particularly important because of the anticipated solar maximum expected to occur during the year 2000 During the solar maximum a phenomenon that peaks every 11 years the Sun emits intense radiation capable of scrambling signals from communications satellites and causing power failures as well as brilliant auroras The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA had launched SOHO in December 1995 as a joint mission In April 1998 the spacecraft had successfully completed its initial two-year mission to study the Sunrsquos atmosphere surface and interior523

25 June James L Elliot an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues together with Lowell Observatory and Williams College published findings in the journal Nature based on data obtained from NASArsquos HST The data indicated that Neptunersquos largest moon Triton had warmed up significantly since the Voyager spacecraftrsquos visit in 1989 Tritonrsquos temperature had risen from 37 K (-393degF or -236degC) to 39 K (-389degF or -234degC) a 5 percent increase The astronomers traced the warming trend to seasonal changes in Tritonrsquos polar ice caps attributed to ldquoan extreme southern summerrdquo a cyclical phenomenon occurring every few hundred years Other possible explanations included a changing frost pattern on Tritonrsquos surface which could have caused the surface to absorb more of the Sunrsquos warmth or changes in the reflectivity of Tritonrsquos ice which could have caused it to absorb more heat Because of the warming Tritonrsquos frozen nitrogen surface was turning into gas making its thin atmosphere

521 Federal Document Clearing Houserdquo Committee Asks Clinton for Space Station Planrdquo government news release 24 June 1998 522 Paul Recer for Associated Press ldquoNASA Defends Space Station Plansrdquo 24 June 1998 John C Henry ldquoNASA Chief Concedes Space Station DelaysmdashHas Contingency Plans If Russia Canrsquot Do Its Partrdquo San Diego Union- Tribune (CA) 25 June 1998 523 NASA ldquoSOHO Spacecraft Observations Interruptedrdquo news release 98-112 26 June 1998 Paul Hoversten ldquoSun- Studying Probe Failing To Respond NASA Fears Itrsquos Lostrdquo USA Today 29 June 1998

148


denser The scientists hoped their study of the changes on Triton would provide insight into global warming on Earth which has a more complicated environment than Triton HSTrsquos ldquodetection of an increase in the moonrsquos atmospheric pressurerdquo measured with one of the space telescopersquos three fine guidance sensors had provided the clue to the increased surface temperature524

30 June NASA announced that experts from the ESA and Matra Marconi Space the prime contractor for the SOHO spacecraft had met at GSFC in Greenbelt Maryland to assess the situation of the noncommunicating spacecraft and to analyze the satellitersquos status in the event that ground controllers reestablished contact with it Participants at the meeting named as cochairs of a joint inquiry board to investigate the incident Professor Massimo Trella the ESArsquos Inspector General and Michael A Greenfield Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA Headquarters525

The European Science Foundation and the US National Research Council published a joint study analyzing 13 projects in astrophysics planetary science space physics earth science and microgravity research The report advised the United States and its international partners to ldquoset aside a specific part of their annual space budgets to plan for future critical joint exploration projectsrdquo highlighting factors hampering cooperation within the projects analyzed Hampering factors included cultural differences poorly defined objectives and ldquolukewarm support from the scientific community for projects undertaken more for political than research reasonsrdquo The report set forth recommendations for successfully pursuing cooperative space projects within tight budget constraints526

JULY 1998

2 July PanAmSat Corporation announced the impairment of a critical subsystem of its Galaxy VII spacecraft A spokesperson for the company said that engineers had not yet determined whether the problem was the same as that which caused the failure of the Galaxy IV spacecraft on 19 May Both the primary and backup systems keeping the Galaxy IV correctly pointed toward Earth-bound controllers had failed but although the Galaxy VII had lost its primary system its backup system had continued to function properly Hughes Electronics Corporationrsquos Space and Communications Company the manufacturer of the two satellites was investigating the failures Both satellites were HS601 models the worldrsquos ldquobest-selling large communications satelliterdquo

524 NASA ldquoHubble Space Telescope Helps Find Evidence that Neptunersquos Largest Moon Is Warming Uprdquo news release 98-110 24 June 1998 J L Eliot et al ldquoGlobal Warming on Tritonrdquo Nature 393 no 6687 (25 June 1998) 765ndash767 525 NASA ldquoEfforts To Recover SOHO Spacecraft Continue as Inquiry Board Co-Chairs Namedrdquo news release 98shy118 30 June 1998 526 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoStudy Space Projects Need Good Sciencerdquo 30 June 1998 European Space Foundation ldquoTransatlantic Study Identifies Keys to Success in International Space Collaborationrdquo news release 30 June 1998 httpwwwesforgmedia-centrepress-releasesext-single-newsarticletransatlantic-study-identifies-keys-to-sucess-in-international-space-collaborations-220html (accessed 27 September 2007)

149


with customers including the US Navy NASA the government of Mexico and communications companies throughout the world527

SPACEHAB Inc a Virginia-based commercial space company with a staff of 85 purchased the Johnson Engineering Corporation a 400-person firm contracted to support NASArsquos Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston Texas SPACEHABrsquos chairperson said the company would ldquoexpand the use of Johnson Engineeringrsquos larger technical staff to support its plans for expansion into the commercial space arenardquo Investors had incorporated SPACEHAB in 1984 to ldquodevelop a commercial research module that could accommodate small private as well as government-financed science experiments and engineering tests during [S]pace [S]huttle mission[s]rdquo However when the anticipated commercial market had failed to develop SPACEHAB ldquochanged its strategyrdquo winning NASA contracts NASA used SPACEHAB modules stored in the Shuttlersquos payload bays as cargo containers for storing ldquotons of food clothing and other gear that was ferried to Russiarsquos Mir space station aboard a series of recently concluded US [S]huttle flightsrdquo528

Russia announced it would retire the Mir space station during the summer of 1999 six months earlier than originally planned The decision resulted from a meeting between Russian Space Agency Director General Yuri N Koptev and Deputy Prime Minister Boris E Nemtsov who agreed that Russia had insufficient funds to continue to fly the station The agreement allocated approximately US$100 million for Mirrsquos final year including funds for ldquoa series of rockets to direct Mir to an unpopulated area of the Pacific Oceanrdquo Nemtsov also agreed to pay the Russian Space Agency the US$600 million owed for Mirrsquos operations in 1997 using ldquounspecified lsquononbudgetary sourcesrsquordquo529

4 July Due to arrive at Mars in October 1999 after a period of orbiting Earth Japanrsquos Planet B spacecraft launched from Kagoshima Space Center on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu The Japanese Education Ministryrsquos Institute of Space and Aerospace Science developed the probe nicknamed Nozomi or Hope The probe carried 14 scientific instruments developed by Canada Germany Japan Sweden and the United States NASA provided two instruments for the probe the Neutral Mass Spectrometer designed to measure the gas composition of Marsrsquos upper atmosphere for the first time and the Ultra Stable Oscillator deployed to support a radio science experiment also involving analysis of the Martian atmosphere and to guide the spacecraft in its orbit around Mars530

6 July US Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) announced that Alliant Techsystems would build composite materials such as booster nose cones for the Boeing Delta IV rocket at Iuka Mississippi a former site of the Tennessee Valley Authority and NASA The rocket would

527 Robert Covington for Reuters ldquoSecond PanAmSat Satellite Encounters Problemsrdquo 2 July 1998 528 Mark Carreau ldquoSpacehab of Virginia Acquires NASA Contractorrdquo Houston Chronicle 5 July 1998 529 Adam Tanner for Reuters ldquoRussia Agrees to Early End for Mir Space Stationrdquo 2 July 1998 Anna Dolgov for Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 3 July 1998 530 NASA ldquoNASA Instruments on Japanese Planet-B Spacecraft Will Aid Studies of Martian Upper Atmosphererdquo news release 98-119 1 July 1998 United Press International ldquoJapan Launches First Mars Missionrdquo 4 July 1998

150


ldquocompete for Air Force and commercial contracts for satellite launchesrdquo while Senator Lott and US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairperson Richard Shelby (R-AL) would continue to investigate whether launching US-made satellites on Chinese rockets was compromising US security Rod Bitz the director of corporate communications for Alliant said ldquoIuka was chosen in part because the large structures can be easily shipped by barge to Decaturrdquo Engineers at the new Boeing plant in Decatur Alabama would assemble the rocket531

7 July In a vote of 66 to 33 the US Senate defeated Senator Dale Bumpersrsquos (D-AK) amendment to the appropriations bill for the Veterans Administration Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies The amendment would have cut the United Statesrsquo US$23 billion share of the FY 1999 budget for the International Space Station (ISS) cancelling the ISS program During floor debate preceding the vote Senator Bumpers who had been trying to eliminate US funding for the space station for the past eight years referred to the previous monthrsquos US General Accounting Office report The report had projected that the cost to develop assemble and operate the space station over several years would reach US$100 billion in part because of recurring cost overruns Senator John H Glenn Jr (D-OH) countered Senator Bumpersrsquos arguments against the space station citing the ldquoincredible scientific possibilitiesrdquo that could result from research on the ISS in such areas as neurology sleep disorders and balance532

Rocket engineer Max E Nowak died of natural causes at the age of 89 An original member of Wernher von Braunrsquos German rocket team which developed the V-1 and V-2 rockets during World War II Nowak had been among the first of the team members to move to the United States after the war He had been the assistant to the director of the manufacturing engineering lab during the Apollo program and had directed the assembly of systems for the Saturn I nose cones and Saturn V launch systems533

Japanrsquos National Space Development Agency (NASDA) docked the two satellites⎯Orihime and Hikoboshi⎯in outer space marking the first time two robotic spacecraft had docked using remote control US and Russian space programs had used remote control to dock pilotless cargo craft with the piloted Mir space station but had never maneuvered two robotic spacecraft together NASA spokesperson Brian D Welch called the accomplishment ldquoan impressive featrdquo NASDA timed the rendezvous of the two satellites to coincide with Japanrsquos Tanabata or star festival on 7 July celebrating ldquoa mythical meeting between the princess Orihime and her lover Hikoboshirdquo associated with the stars Altair and Vega According to the legend the pair may meet only once a year on 7 July534

NASA announced that JSC had modified its contract with United Space Alliance awarding the contractor more Shuttle work Three other NASA contractors had previously performed the more

531 James W Brosnan ldquoIuka Revving Up for Rockets Again Will Be Part of Delta IV Projectrdquo Commercial Appeal (Memphis TN) 7 July 1998 532 Frederic J Frommer for Associated Press ldquoSpace Stationrdquo 7 July 1998 Vickie Allen for Reuters ldquoInternational Space Station Survives Senate Voterdquo 7 July 1998 Federal Document Clearing House ldquoBumpers Amendment Would Ground Space Stationrdquo government news release 7 July 1998 533 Associated Press ldquo3 Rocket Scientists Dierdquo 12 July 1998 534 Associated Press ldquoJapanese Are Unveiling Stellar Space Program Progress Has Been Made Cheaply and Quietlyrdquo New Orleans Times-Picayune 8 July 1998

151


than US$900 million of work on the Space Shuttlersquos solid rocket booster and other elements USBI Company at Kennedy Space Center had worked on the boosters Lockheed Martin Corporation in Houston Texas had designed and produced the primary Shuttle avionics software and Boeing Aerospace Operations in Houston had processed flight equipment535

8 July S George Djorgovski an astronomer at California Institute of Technology Dale A Frail an astronomer with the Very Large Array (VLA) Observatory in Socorro New Mexico and their colleagues issued a notice to fellow astronomers regarding a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected on 2 July Frail and Djorgovski had combined the resources of the VLA and the W M Keck Observatory in Hawaii to pinpoint the source of the burst which they calculated to be a galaxy ldquoalive with new-forming starsrdquo billions of light-years away from Earth Although scientists did not yet know the cause of GRBs Frail remarked ldquothe fact that this burst happened in a hot galaxy where new stars are being rapidly formed is probably the death knell for the theory that collisions between old dying neutron stars are responsible for the gamma-ray burstsrdquo536

9 July Heinrich K Paetz an original member of Wernher von Braunrsquos German rocket team died of natural causes at the age of 88 the second team member to die within the week Before retiring from NASA in 1970 Paetz had participated in the Redstone Jupiter Saturn I and Saturn V programs as a member of the test branch537

A month after its launch the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began activating the weather satellite Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-10 (GOESshy10) a backup to the failing GOES-9 satellite The momentum wheels on GOES-9 similar to a gyroscope which maintain the satellitersquos stability were ldquoshowing signs of impending failurerdquo GOES-9 was responsible for monitoring weather on the west coast of the United States GOESshy10 placed in storage mode above the center of the country would need about 30 days moving approximately 1ordm of longitude each day to move to the west coast location GOES-10rsquos well-timed placement in storage mode would ensure data continuity saving NOAA a 12- to 15-month wait for a time slot for launch following the imminent failure of GOES-9538

10 July Rocket scientist Albert E Schuler died of natural causes at the age of 83 the third original member of Wernher von Braunrsquos rocket team to die in the same week Schuler had retired from NASA in 1969 after a career overseeing measurement of instrumentation on test stands and rockets during static firings and overseeing flight instrumentation guidance and control on rocket flights539

14 July

535 NASA ldquoNASA Awards More Shuttle Work to USArdquo news release c98-h 7 July 1998 536 John Fleck ldquoNM Scientists Track Galaxy Blast Explosion Is Billions of Light Years Awayrdquo Albuquerque Journal (NM) 9 July 1998 537 Associated Press ldquo3 Rocket Scientists Dierdquo 538 Associated Press ldquoFailing Weather Satellite Replacedrdquo 10 July 1998 539 Associated Press ldquo3 Rocket Scientists Dierdquo

152


NASA announced the establishment of a Near-Earth Object Program Office at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) responsible for coordinating ldquoNASA-sponsored efforts to detect track and characterize potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that could approach Earthrdquo and with facilitating communication between scientists and the public were NASA to discover any potentially hazardous objects NASA selected JPL to host the new program because of ldquoits expertise in tracking precisely the positions and predicted paths of asteroids and cometsrdquo540

15 July NASA released ldquounusually detailedrdquo images of Jupiterrsquos moon Ganymede taken by the Galileo probe in June 1996 and June 1997 Although the images did not indicate the existence of any form of life they showed that life had been possible in Ganymedersquos oceans billions of years ago At that time the moon had water heat and organic material brought by comets from outer space The images also revealed geological formations including mountain-like ridges and a valley system of volcanoes Early in the moonrsquos history the volcanoes had supplied water for Ganymedersquos oceans which are now frozen541

NASArsquos Inventions and Contributions Board announced the winners of its 1998 Software of the Year Award The first winner Tempest a breakthrough technology ldquooriginally developed to support the science experiments on the ISSrdquo had ldquospawned new marketsrdquo and NASA predicted that the technology would continue to do so NASArsquos Ames Research Center had designed the second winner Center TRACON Automation System Software a set of three software tools for managing air-trafficndashcontrol systems at major airports to optimize flight operations Analyzing and predicting aircraft paths the software created visual representations of arriving traffic flow providing controllers with ldquoup-to-the-second advisories of informationrdquo for pilots thus reducing time between landings to a minimum The Federal Aviation Administration had chosen the software for immediate implementation at all major airports542

NASA officially opened its new communications terminal on Guam to provide ldquoglobal full-time and real-time communications support for NASArsquos Space Network customersrdquo The Guam ground station replaced the interim ground terminal in Canberra Australia established to provide continuous full-time real-time communications support for NASArsquos Compton Gamma Ray Observatory after it had ldquosuffered an on-board tape recorder failure in March 1992rdquo543

16 July The joint committee of NASA and the European Space Agency investigating the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) incident issued a preliminary report The committee found that several errors had led to the loss of the satellitersquos signal First Mission Control had ldquounknowingly activatedrdquo two preprogrammed sequences which lacked commands to reorient the spacecraft properly The resulting anomalies had caused SOHO to enter into emergency Sun reacquisition mode (ESR) A ldquorapid decisionrdquo to turn off one of the craftrsquos gyroscopes had

540 NASA ldquoNASA Establishes Near-Earth Object Program Office at Jet Propulsion Laboratoryrdquo news release 98shy123 14 July 1998 541 Paul Hoversten ldquoPhotos Suggest Life Could Have Existed on Jupiterrsquos Moonrdquo USA Today 16 July 1998 New York Times ldquoHints of an Ocean on Jupiterrsquos Moon Yield Questions About Liferdquo 16 July 1998 542 NASA ldquoSpace Flight Aviation Programs Receive NASA Software Awardrdquo news release 98-124 15 July 1998 543 NASA ldquoNew NASA Facility Will Complete Worldwide Communications Coveragerdquo news release 98-122 13 July 1998

153


ultimately triggered two more ESRs sending the spacecraft ldquoflailing out of controlrdquo Controllers also discovered that ldquoundetected failuresrdquo which had occurred sometime earlier in the year ldquohad taken out three of the four batteriesrdquo544

17 July US Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) offered an amendment to the Subcommittee on Veterans Administration Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agenciesrsquo FY 1999 appropriations bill adding US$33 million to the US$150 million budget for NASA already approved by the Senate Committee on Appropriations The Senate defeated the amendment by a vote of 58 to 37 President William J Clintonrsquos proposed budget had requested a US$183 million reduction in NASArsquos budget545

20 July The data transmission system of Galileo malfunctioned during its fifth flyby of Jupiterrsquos moon Europa when it went into safe mode Although NASA engineers activated a backup system the transmission system had lost all data collected when the craft passed within 1141 miles (1835 kilometers) of the moon NASA was investigating the malfunction NASA had launched Galileo in 1989 and the probe had entered Jupiterrsquos orbit in 1995 collecting data from moons Io Europa and Callisto during its initial two-year mission completed in December 1997 NASA had extended the mission for two additional years546

21 July Alan B Shepard Jr the first American in space died in his sleep at the age of 74 after a two-year battle with leukemia NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin remembered him for being ldquoone of the original seven Mercury astronauts for being the first American to fly in space and for being one of only 12 Americans to step on the Moonrdquo A former US Navy pilot Shepard had first traveled to space on 5 May 1961 just 23 days after the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth Shepard the lone astronaut in the small space capsule Freedom 7 rocketed 116 miles (187 kilometers) above Earth as millions of people watched him live on television Shepardrsquos spaceflight proved a significant morale-boosting moment for Americans in the midst of the Cold War with the Soviet Union which until then had appeared to be winning the space race After the flight President John F Kennedy presented Shepard with the Distinguished Service Medal challenging the nation to put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade Shepard made history again in 1971 when he commanded Apollo 14 on its nine-day mission to the Moon He delighted Americans watching the expedition on television when taking a break from collecting Moon rocks he hit two golf balls with an improvised club Shepard who had retired from NASA and the US Navy in 1974 received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1979 Shepard also engaged in philanthropic pursuits such as investing

544 NASA ldquoEfforts To Recover SOHO Spacecraft Continue as Investigation Board Focuses on Most Likely Causesrdquo news release 98-125 16 July 1998 James Glanz ldquoChain of Errors Hurled Probe into Spinrdquo Science 281 no 5376 (24 July 1998) 499 United Press International ldquoUPI Science Newsrdquo 28 July 1998 545 Federal Document Clearing House ldquoSenator Sessions Offers Amendment To Increase NASArsquos Budget by $33 Millionrdquo government news release 17 July 1998 546 Agence France-Presse ldquoGalileo Probe Suffers Malfunction in Jupiter Moon Flybyrdquo 22 July 1998 Associated Press ldquoSpacecraft Galileo Working Againrdquo 24 July 1998

154


in the establishment of the Astronaut Foundation which provides scholarships The Astronaut Foundation had also founded the Space Camp program for young people547

22 July NASA named astronaut Terrence W Wilcutt to replace James D Halsell Jr as NASArsquos Manager of Operational Activities at Star City Russia Wilcutt was the 10th astronaut to serve in the rotational position supporting the training and preparation of NASA astronauts at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and acting as a liaison between NASA and Russian management Wilcutt had flown on three missions the first in 1994 as the pilot on Mission STS-68 to study the Earthrsquos surface the second in 1996 as the pilot for the fourth ShuttlendashMir docking mission STS-79 and the third in 1998 as the commander of Mission STS-89 the eighth docking mission548

23 July NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had found the youngest cluster of stars ever observed in a galaxy near the Milky Way The baby stars were ldquoenveloped in a cloud of luminous gasesrdquo in the galaxy known as the Small Magellanic Cloud about 200000 light-years from Earth The HST had discovered the 50 new stars each 300000 times as bright as the Sun ldquoconcentrated in a region only 10 light-years across in a cloud known as N81rdquo Before the capture of the HSTrsquos high-resolution images astronomers had referred to the area as The Blob549

NASA announced that engineers had repaired the malfunctioning data transmission systems aboard Galileo Although both subsystems were ldquoworking redundantly as they had been designed to dordquo it would be up to a week before the probe could resume transmitting scientific data to Earth Project engineers believed that debris had short-circuited a signal line causing computer resets550

Two competing teams using NASArsquos Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) discovered the first known accretion-powered millisecond pulsar The scientists believed the pulsar to be the missing link between two known types of stars 1) ldquoold accreting neutron stars which are powerful sources of [x]-rays generated from the material they are gobbling up from their companionsrdquo and 2) even older ldquoradiowave emitting pulsars that are rotating very rapidly and slowing down graduallyrdquo Because the new star designated SAX J18084-3658 was both emitting x-rays and spinning rapidly scientists believed it was the link between the accreting and the radiowaveshy

547 NASA ldquoStatement of NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin on the Death of Alan Shepardrdquo news release 98128 22 July 1998 NASA ldquoAlan Shepard First American Astronaut Dies at 74rdquo news release 98-131 22 July 1998 Federal Document Clearing House ldquoJohn Glenn Remarks on Alan Shepardrdquo government news release 22 July 1998 Paul Hoversten ldquoShepardrsquos Ride Lifted USA into the Space Agerdquo USA Today 23 July 1998 Jennifer Harper ldquoAlan Shepard First American in Space Dies at 74 lsquoPioneerrsquos Pioneerrsquo also Led Apollo 14 Golfed on Moonrdquo Washington Times 23 July 1998 548 NASA ldquoAstronaut Wilcutt Replaces Halsell in Star City Russiardquo news release 98-127 22 July 1998 549 NASA ldquoNearby Star Cluster Yields Insights into Early Universerdquo news release 98-132 23 July 1998 Washington Times ldquoHubble Telescope Finds Family of Starsrdquo 24 July 1998 New York Times ldquoGenesis in a Cosmic Firestormrdquo 28 July 1998 550 Agence France-Presse ldquoNASA Repairs Galileo Probersquos Glitchrdquo 24 July 1998 Associated Press ldquoSpacecraft Galileo Working Againrdquo 24 July 1998

155

shy


emitting neutron stars Michiel van der Klis and Rudy Wijnands of the University of Amsterdam found the new pulsarmdashcalled the ldquoHoly Grail of X-ray astronomyrdquomdashand measured the time between its rapid x-ray pulses to derive its rotation rate Van der Klis explained that based on the fact of accretion astrophysicists had long theorized that millisecond pulsars existed but this was the first time that one had been ldquocaught in the actrdquo Accretion the process of drawing gas from a nearby ldquocompanionrdquo star causes pulsars to heat up emitting x-rays After accretion ends high-velocity beams of subatomic particles continue to ldquoblow material off the companionrdquo eventually causing the companion to vanish Deepto Chakrabarty and Edward H Morgan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology led the team that found the pulsarrsquos 2-hour orbital period measured the orbit and inferred the presence of the companion star Tod E Strohmayer a member of the RXTE team at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center suggested ldquo[x]-ray and particle beam ablation may explain why millisecond pulsars are often found alone despite the fact that they required a companion star to speed uprdquo Pulsars ldquovaporizerdquo their companions thus hiding the evidence which is as Strohmayer described it the ldquostellar version of the perfect crimerdquo551

27 July NASA announced that astronomers had located the ldquowaywardrdquo SOHO satellite after losing radio contact on 24 June when a programming error on the ground caused its solar panels to switch positions Two US radio telescopes had located the satellite rotating slowly near its original position approximately 1 million miles (16 million kilometers) from Earth Engineers had calculated its exact location after NASArsquos Deep Space Network in Goldstone California ldquointercepted the echo of a radio signal transmitted by the giant radio telescope of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center in Arecibo Puerto Ricordquo The spacecraftrsquos slow rotation on its axis indicated that it had incurred only minor damage and that its solar panels would soon face the Sun again552

29 July Aaron A Crayford and Cody Grosskopf the two Cloverdale California teenagers accused of hacking into military and government computers in January and February 1998 pled guilty to federal hacking charges The US Attorneyrsquos Office recommended probation and strict restrictions on the boysrsquo computer use and modem access Crayford and Grosskopf had reportedly hacked into US government Web sites including the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory the Naval Undersea Warfare Center the Naval Postgraduate School NOAA NASA the US Air Force and Pearl Harbor naval base Web sites of foreign governments Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates and Web sites of a number of universities including the University of California at Berkeley the University of California at Santa Barbara the University of California at Los Angeles the University of California at Davis California Polytechnic Institute Columbia University and Harvard University553

551 NASA ldquoNewly Discovered Stellar Cannibal Provides Missing Linkrdquo news release 98-129 22 July 1998 Rudy Wijnands and Michiel van der Klis ldquoA Millisecond Pulsar in an X-ray Binary Systemrdquo Nature 394 no 6691 (23 July 1998) 344ndash346 Deepto Chakrabarty and Edward H Morgan ldquoThe Two-Hour Orbit of a Binary Millisecond X-ray Pulsarrdquo Nature 394 no 6691 (23 July 1998) 346ndash348 552 Agence France-Presse ldquoUS-European Satellite Located by Engineersrdquo 28 July 1998 553 Jody Kleinberg ldquoCloverdale Hackers Plead Guilty Probation Recommended for 2 Teensrdquo Press Democrat (Santa Rosa CA) 30 July 1998

156


The US House of Representatives voted 323 to 109 against an amendment sponsored by Representative Timothy J Roemer (D-IN) which would have eliminated the ISS program before the launch of the first pieces of the laboratory into orbit Commenting on the hundreds of thousands of pounds of hardware already constructed Representative David Weldon Jr (R-FL) remarked that ldquoto pull the plug now seemed inappropriate to a lot of peoplerdquo Despite bad news throughout the past year requiring NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin to visit Capitol Hill repeatedly to discuss cost overruns and delays the vote was the ldquostrongest endorsement ever for the stationrdquo The station had survived by only one vote in 1993 the year President William J Clinton had ldquoreorganized the project and invited Russia to join the international consortiumrdquo and to build the laboratory554

NASA announced completion of qualification tests of the first wing assembly for its X-34 technology demonstrator explaining that the prime contractor Orbital Sciences Corporation had integrated the wing assembly with the test articlersquos fuselage marking a major milestone in the

555program

30 July NASA announced the selection of veteran cosmonaut Sergei K Krikalev for the crew of Mission STS-88 the first American ISS assembly mission In December 1998 Krikalev would join aboard Endeavour Commander Robert D Cabana Pilot Frederick W ldquoRickrdquo Sturckow and Mission Specialists Nancy J Currie Jerry L Ross and James H Newman NASA had assigned Mission STS-88 the task of attaching the US-built Unity module to the Russian-built Zarya control module scheduled to launch in November 1998 Krikalev had been a member of two Mir space station crews and had flown aboard the Space Shuttle as a member of the Mission STS-60 crew in February 1994 During Mission STS-60 Krikalev had operated the robotic arm and supported a variety of experiments in materials science556

31 July Kenneth J Szalai ended his 34-year NASA career to join IBP Aerospace Group Inc as the companyrsquos president and chief operating officer In his last position at NASA Szalai was Director of Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) in Edwards California Szalai had directed DFRC since December 1990 Before becoming the Centerrsquos director Szalai had been head of the research engineering division at DFRC for eight years NASA had awarded Szalai an internationally recognized expert on flight control and flight systems the Exceptional Service Medal in recognition of his work on the first Digital Fly-by-Wire aircraft He had also received NASArsquos Outstanding Leadership Medal during his NASA tenure NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin appointed Kevin L Petersen Acting Director of DFRC effective 1 August557

AUGUST 1998

1 August

554 Tamara Lytle ldquoNASArsquos lsquoFloating Lemonrsquo Gets Sweet House Boostrdquo Chicago Tribune 30 July 1998 555 NASA ldquoX-34 Completes Critical Milestonerdquo news release 98-136 29 July 1998 556 NASA ldquoFuture Space Station Resident Joins Assembly Crewrdquo news release 98-137 30 July 1998 557 Jim Skeen ldquoDryden Director To Leave NASA for Private Sectorrdquo Los Angeles Daily News 11 July 1998

157


NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration announced the winners of the 1998 National General Aviation Design Competition in which undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at US engineering schools ldquoparticipating in a major national effort to rebuild the US general aviation sectorrdquo compete individually or as teams A 27-member undergraduate team from Virginia Polytechnic Institute won first place for its design called VicTor a single-engine four-seat high-performance aircraft VicTorrsquos special design elements included an ergonomic cockpit with adjustable side-control sticks and dual airbags a choice between two high-performance engines and advanced technology instrument displays The design also included an upgrade option ldquoto allow autonomous flight if it becomes a realityrdquo A 15-member Pennsylvania State University team won second place for their high-performance two-person single-engine composite-fuselage tractor-prop light airplane Third place went to 13 undergraduate students from the University of Virginia for their computer program predicting drag in the design of new small passenger airplanes558

3 August The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite out of contact with ground controllers since 25 June responded to signals sent by NASArsquos Deep Space Tracking Network antennas in Canberra Australia Although the signals contained no data SOHO transmitted a series of short radio bursts indicating to space scientists that the craft was still able to receive ground commands and therefore that they might still have a chance of salvaging it559

7 August NASA announced that Boeing Companyrsquos cost overruns for the International Space Station (ISS) had increased by about 30 percent to US$783 million and that NASA intended to ldquofurther cut the companyrsquos bonus feesrdquo In reporting to NASA the latest cost overruns Boeing had explained that ldquocontinued production and testing and the need to set aside money for contingenciesrdquo had caused the latest increase US$183 million more than the US$600 million previously estimated Under the terms of NASArsquos cost-plus-fee contract Boeing would lose an additional US$275 million in bonus fees besides the US$78 million reduction that NASA had imposed560

8 August Following ground control efforts during recent weeks to partially recharge the spacecraftrsquos batteries SOHO successfully transmitted telemetry data to NASArsquos Deep Space Tracking Station at Goldstone California The 1-minute burst of data contained information about SOHOrsquos temperature and the state of some of its electrical systems damaged by the extreme cold The data also indicated that ground control had successfully recharged one of the two batteries The spacecraft remained in the L-1 Langrangian point in space which is a point 1 million miles (16 million kilometers) away from Earth where gravity forces are stable and ldquoan object will not change its position relative to the Earthrdquo561

558 NASA ldquoNASA and FAA Announce Design Competition Winnersrdquo news release 98-140 1 August 1998 559 NASA ldquoSOHO Spacecraft Contactedrdquo news release 98-145 4 August 1998 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoContact Re-established with Wayward Satelliterdquo 4 August 1998 560 Seattle Times (WA) ldquoBoeing Reports More Space Station Overrunsrdquo 7 August 1998 561 NASA ldquoNew Information from SOHO Increases Chances for Recoveryrdquo news release 98-149 11 August 1998 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoSOHO Sun Satellite Comes to Life Brieflyrdquo 12 August 1998 Associated Press ldquoFresh Signals from Crippled Satellite Revive Hope for Sun-Studying Missionrdquo 13 August 1998

158


11 August Hughes Electronics Corporation concluded its investigation into the 19 May failure of PanAmSatrsquos Galaxy IV satellite and the similar problems that later had affected two other satellites Metallic crystals growing in space ldquoless than the width of a human hairrdquo had caused tin-plated electrical switches to short disabling navigational devices that kept the satellites oriented toward Earth-based controllers However the investigation had failed to uncover the source of the failure of Galaxy IVrsquos backup system which led to the widespread blackout on 19 May562

12 August A US Air Force Titan IV rocket carrying a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office of the Pentagon exploded 1 minute after liftoff from Cape Canaveral Florida More than 20 stories high and weighing nearly 2 million pounds (907000 kilograms) the Lockheed Martinndashbuilt Titan IV was the largest crewless rocket used in the United States The rocket used solid-fuel boosters similar to those used to launch NASArsquos Space Shuttle The explosion destroyed about US$13 billion worth of hardware making it one of the worst American rocket-launch failures to date The rocket was about 20000 feet (6100 meters) above the Atlantic when it exploded and the ocean carried the debris and toxic substances away from land This was the second time a Titan IV had exploded during launch the first explosion occurred in 1993563

13 August A Soyuz TM-28 spacecraft blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying the penultimate crew of the Russian space station Mir The three-member crew was composed of former presidential defense adviser Yuri M Baturin Flight Commander Sergei V Avdeyev and Engineer Gennady I Padalka564 Baturin was the first Russian bureaucrat to travel into space and his inclusion in the mission attracted ldquounusually heavy Russian media coveragerdquo The former Kremlin adviser had trained alongside professional cosmonauts passing all examinations Earlier in the year President Boris N Yeltsin had fired space physicist Baturin without an explanation and Baturin had focused since then on training for the mission to Mir565

As part of an overall restructuring the Boeing Company announced plans to reduce its workforce by 12 percent over the next 18 months through the layoffs of as many as 28000 workers Much of the restructuring plan focused on the companyrsquos commercial airplane business affecting those workers who were once part of McDonnell Douglas Corporation which Boeing had purchased in 1997 In contrast the company reported it was making strides in its defense and space work566

18 August

562 Aaron Pressman for Reuters ldquoTiny Crystals Waylaid Satellites Hughes Saysrdquo 11 August 1998 563 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoRocket Explosionrdquo 12 August 1998 Kathy Sawyer and William Harwood ldquoRocket Explodes Destroying Spy Satelliterdquo Washington Post 13 August 1998 564 Mikhail Metzel for Associated Press ldquoNext Mission Blasts Off for Mir Space Stationrdquo 13 August 1998 565 Shavkat Rakhmatullayev for Reuters ldquoRussia Blasts First Bureaucrat into Spacerdquo 13 August 1998 Associated Press ldquoMir Mission Under Way Despite Russian Economic Troublesrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 14 August 1998 566 Tim Smart ldquoBoeing To Retool Lay Off Thousands Condit Cites Need To Reduce Costsrdquo Washington Post 14 August 1998

159


NASA awarded Aerojet a GenCorp Inc company a US$164 million contract to provide a de-orbit propulsion stage for the X-38 technology demonstrator vehicle The contract for design development manufacture test and delivery of one propulsion stage for the first X-38 spaceflight test included a second option for five operational propulsion units for the crew return vehicle (CRV) if NASA selected the X-38 design for the CRV Engineers at Dryden Flight Research Center were flight-testing the X-38 a prototype spacecraft intended to lead to the development and construction of a CRV for the ISS567

20 August A fire that started in a shed containing an air compressor spread to another building of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) causing extensive damage No one was injured and firefighters were able to stop the blaze before it reached laboratories containing hazardous and flammable materials Fire investigators had not determined the cause of the fire NASA did not permit the investigators to survey the damage immediately because of sensitive material housed in the affected building568

21 August Phillip Z Tapper emergency coordinator for NASArsquos GSFC announced that exposure to smoke and water during the previous dayrsquos fire had damaged parts of two spacecraft Tapper said that engineers had not yet determined the exact damage to the heat protection panels which they were planning to install in the Hubble Space Telescope and another spacecraft569

NASA and US Air Force officials announced the hiring of Space Gateway Support of Herndon Virginia to run base operations at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Patrick Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Johnson Controls and EGampG Florida at KSC had previously held base-operations contracts at the military bases The new joint base-operationsshysupport contract was worth US$1 billion for five years with the option to renew for another five years In consolidating the contracts the agencies intended to cut costs According to officials continuing separate base-operations contracts would have cost 30 percent more Other primary customers under the contract included government contractors for NASA and US Air Force spaceflight operations payload ground operations life sciences expendable vehicles and launch operations and support570

Fritz Haber a German engineer recruited after World War II to work on the American space program died at the age of 86 in Connecticut An aeronautical engineer Haber developed a way to simulate a gravity-free environment by flying a plane in a roller-coaster pattern NASA first used this simulation to train the astronauts in the Apollo program Before coming to the United States Haber had developed a way to transport missiles by piggybacking them on another aircraft Engineers had never used his piggyback design during World War II but NASA had

567 Defense Daily ldquoAerojet Wins $164 NASA Contract for X-38 Propulsionrdquo 20 August 1998 568 Associated Press ldquoNASA Firerdquo 20 August 1998 569 Associated Press ldquoNASA Fire Damages Spacecraft Partsrdquo 21 August 1998 570 NASA ldquoSGS Awarded NASA and Air Force Joint Base Contractrdquo contract announcement C98-m 21 August 1998 Joni James ldquoBase Operations Under 1 Contractrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 22 August 1998

160


implemented his idea carrying the Space Shuttle on a modified Boeing 747 from its landing site in California back to its launch site in Florida571

25 August Cosmonauts Talgat A Musabayev and Nikolai M Budarin returned to Earth from a 207-day sojourn aboard Mir along with former Kremlin aide Yuri M Baturin who had accompanied the cosmonautsrsquo replacements to the space station spending 12 days in space The two cosmonauts arrived in Russia to find a devalued ruble and the return of Viktor S Chernomyrdin as Acting Prime Minister Russian President Boris N Yeltsin had not yet fired Chernomyrdinrsquos government at the time Musabayev and Budarin left for Mir and the two cosmonauts had missed the entire four-month term of Prime Minister Sergei V Kiriyenko Yeltsin had dissolved Kiriyenkorsquos government the week before the cosmonautsrsquo return flight to Earth Because Yeltsin had devalued the ruble the two cosmonauts also found that their pay had diminished572

26 August The newly developed Delta III rocket exploded during liftoff destroying the Galaxy X communications satellite it was carrying into orbit The launch was the maiden flight of Boeingrsquos newest version of the Delta rocket designed to carry 8400 pounds (3800 kilograms) twice the payload of the previous version573

27 August NASA announced the arrival of international astronaut candidates at Johnson Space Center where they began training as members of the 1998 astronaut class The international candidates from Brazil Canada France Germany and Italy were Leacuteopold Eyharts Paolo A Nespoli Hans W Schlegel and Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency Bjarni V Tryggvason of the Canadian Space Agency and Marco C Pontes of the Brazilian Space Agency574

SEPTEMBER 1998

2 September Pentagon officials announced that on 12 August a split-second power outage had caused a Titan IV rocket to explode while launching a secret spy satellite into space A battery powering the guidance system had failed interrupting the flow of electricity for a fraction of a second After the restoration of battery power the guidance control system had sent a command causing the rocket to pitch down and to the right while traveling at 675 miles (1100 kilometers) per hour at 17000 feet (5200 meters) The rocket had begun to break up and the malfunction had triggered the automatic destruct system In addition when it had begun to explode range safety officers had sent the rocket destruct commands to ensure it would not threaten the coastal population575

3 September

571 Ford Burkhart ldquoFritz Haber 86 Dies Simulated Weightlessness of Spacerdquo New York Times 29 August 1998 572 Reuters ldquoThree Russian Cosmonauts Return Safely to Earthrdquo 25 August 1998 Shavkat Rakhmatullayev for Reuters ldquoRussiarsquos Orbiting Bureaucrat Returns to Earthrdquo 25 August 1998 573 Seth Schiesel ldquoNew Type of Rocket To Carry Satellites Explodes in Liftoffrdquo New York Times 27 August 1998 574 NASA ldquoInternational Candidates Join 1998 Astronaut Classrdquo news release 98-155 27 August 1998 575 Todd Halversen ldquoTitan 4 Blast Blamed on Brief Battery Power Outagerdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 3 September 1998

161


The investigation board of engineers and officials from NASA and the European Space Agency released their final report determining how controllers had lost communication with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite on 24 June The boardrsquos findings presented at a joint news conference held in Washington DC and Paris concluded that no anomalies existed on the spacecraft the loss of SOHO ldquowas a direct result of operational errors a failure to monitor the status of the spacecraft adequately and the use of insufficiently tested rescue proceduresrdquo However the board emphasized that no single cause or particular person was responsible for the incident576

NASA announced that Lunar Prospectorrsquos gamma-ray spectrometer had returned data about the Moonrsquos elemental composition Scientists had used the data to develop the first global maps delineating compositional variations of thorium potassium and iron ore over the lunar surface The maps provided insights into how the Moonrsquos crust had developed Prospectorrsquos magnetometer and electron-reflectometer data indicated that the Moon contained magnetized rocks on its upper surface which had created the two smallest known magnetospheres in the solar system The craftrsquos Doppler gravity experiment had enabled scientists to develop the ldquofirst precise gravity map of the entire lunar surfacerdquo showing seven previously unknown lava-filled craters which cause gravitational anomalies NASA also announced that Lunar Prospector had supplied additional evidence of water-ice deposits on both poles of the Moon577

4 September NASA awarded contracts to Boeing Information Space and Defense Systems Kelly Space and Technology Lockheed Martin Astronautics and Orbital Sciences Corporation Space Access The five contracting companies would study ways that NASA could meet its requirements for human spaceflight at a lower cost The studies would examine three scenarios 1) keeping the Shuttle operational until 2020 2) replacing the Shuttle when it was cost-effective to do so and 3) developing an alternative plan in case NASArsquos funding remained at FY 1999 levels578

The journal Science published data gathered from NASArsquos Lunar Prospector indicating the presence of hydrogen often bundled as water molecules on the north and south poles of the Moon Alan B Binder Chief Scientist for the Lunar Prospector mission explained that the spacecraft had detected an abundance of hydrogen and that the science team had interpreted the data to mean that the Moon has 1ndash10 billion tons (910ndash9100 kilograms or 09ndash91 billion tonnes) of water In a previous mission to the Moon to collect data the spacecraft Clementine had found radar indications of water on the Moonrsquos south pole Paul D Spudis a member of the Clementine science team remarked that Prospectorrsquos discovery was significant because ldquothe presence of lunar water has been confirmed by two different research methodsrdquo579

576 Warren E Leary ldquoSatellite To Study Sun Is Reviving from Deadrdquo New York Times 4 September 1998 577 NASA ldquoLatest Lunar Prospector Findings Indicate Larger Amounts of Polar Water Icerdquo news release 98-158 3 September 1998 578 NASA ldquoNASA Contracts for Future Space Transportation Studiesrdquo news release c98-n 4 September 1998 Defense Daily ldquoNASA Awards Future Space Transport Study Contractsrdquo 8 September 1999 579 D J Lawrence et al ldquoGlobal Elemental Maps and the Moon The Lunar Prospector Gamma-Ray Spectrometerrdquo Science 281 no 5382 (4 September 1998) 1484ndash1489 Reuters ldquoProspector Finds Water on Moon NASA Spacecraft Locates Ice at the North and South Polesrdquo Washington Times 4 September 1998 Associated Press ldquoMan in the Moon May Have Plenty To Drink Abundance of Water Likely Scientists Foresee Colonizationrdquo Chicago Tribune 4 September 1998

162


8 September Boeing successfully launched from a California launch site five satellites for the Iridium World Communications network aboard a Delta II rocket The Delta II launched two weeks after the ldquodisastrous maiden flightrdquo of the new Delta III rocket which had exploded during liftoff Officials announced on 5 September that a problem with the rocketrsquos control system had caused the explosion but that they had not yet determined the exact chain of events The five satellites launched aboard the Delta II rocket replaced satellites that had malfunctioned and could not be included in the Iridium telecommunications constellation580

9 September A Zenit rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan failed when a computer error caused a premature engine shutdown during the second-stage burn The rocket fell crashing in Siberia The rocketrsquos failure destroyed 12 of Globalstar Incrsquos communications satellites581

10 September Ghassem R Asrar NASA Associate Administrator for Earth Science Enterprise testified before the US House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics about budget concerns and delays associated with the Earth Observing System program House Subcommittee Chairperson Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) had called the hearing to discuss numerous delays in NASArsquos Earth Science Enterprise missions Asrar explained the reasons for the delays indicating that NASA would work with Raytheon Systems to deliver a scaled-back data system within budget in time to support two delayed missions Subcommittee member Representative David Weldon Jr (RshyFL) ldquoquestioned the legitimacy of NASArsquos ownership of the Earth Science programrdquo suggesting that a different agency such as the National Academy of Sciences or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should manage the program Weldon also questioned whether scientists would be able to make use of the vast amount of data they expected the program to generate Robert S Winokur NOAArsquos Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services assured subcommittee members that scientists would be able to use the information Winokur was responsible for coordinating NOAArsquos joint efforts with NASA to archive and retrieve environmental data582

NASA announced that Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) had selected Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space of Sunnyvale California and TRW Inc Space and Electronics Group of Redondo Beach California as industry team members for the Space Interferometry Mission The Interferometry Mission would measure the precise location of stars and search for planets orbiting nearby stars The two contracts which together exceeded US$200 million included mission formulation and implementation583

580 Justin Ray ldquoDelta 2 Lifts Five Satellites into Orbitrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 9 September 1998 581 Pavel Polityuk for Reuters ldquoUkraine Appeals for Rocket Launch amid Kazakh Rowrdquo 13 July 1999 Globalstar Chronology 13 July 1999 httpwwwastronautixcomcraftglolstarhtm (accessed 6 August 2008) 582 Brian Berger ldquoEarth Science Faces Hurdles NASA To Forfeit Data Capabilities To Put Key Program on Trackrdquo Space News 14ndash20 September 1998 583 NASA ldquoContractors Chosen for Space Interferometry Missionrdquo news release 98-162 10 September 1998

163


11 September NASA researchers released images and temperature readings collected by Mars Global Surveyor The images revealed that the Martian moon Phobos is covered in a layer of dust at least 3 feet (09 meters) deep the result of the impact of meteoroids occurring over millions of years Surveyorrsquos thermal emission spectrometer revealed that on Phobos the temperature changes from -170ordmF to -25ordmF (-112ordmC to -32ordmC) between night and day Scientists explained that dust accounts for some of the moonrsquos drastic temperature change because Phobos does not have an atmosphere enabling it to trap heat Therefore the surfacersquos small particles have only 7 hours to absorb heat from the Sun losing heat rapidly after sunset Images of landslides on steep crater slopes indicated that Phobosrsquos gravity even at just 11000th of that of Earth is sufficient to pull objects downward584

NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin appointed Arthur G Stephenson President of Oceaneering Advanced Technologies as the new Director of Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville Alabama MSFCrsquos previous director had retired in January and at that time NASA had appointed MSFCrsquos Deputy Director Carolyn S Griner as Acting Director of the Center Before his tenure at Oceaneering Advanced Technologies Stephenson had worked 28 years for TRW Inc of California His last position was as Director of TRW Incrsquos Space Transportation and Servicing Advanced Programs During his 34-year career Stephenson had worked on various projects related to MSFC including the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle during the 1970s and 1980s the Gamma Ray Observatory automated rendezvous and docking and the space-welding inspection extravehicular-activity tool He had also directed the International Space Station (ISS) robotic-system engineering support to the Boeing Company585

Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Science Wesley T Huntress Jr announced the selection of two small spacecraft to undertake the first missions of NASArsquos University-class Explorers program designed to ldquoprovide frequent flight opportunities for highly focused and relatively inexpensive science missionsrdquo NASA had selected the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer spacecraft to study the ldquoLocal Bubblerdquo a cloud of hot gas surrounding the solar system and extending approximately 300 light-years from the Sun NASA selected the Inner Magnetosphere Explorer to study how Earthrsquos Van Allen radiation belts respond to variations in the solar wind NASA had scheduled both missions for 2001586

14 September At a ceremony marking its official opening Virginia Governor James S Gilmore III announced that Reston-based DynCorp was the first major investor in the Commercial Spaceport Launch Pad at Virginia Space Flight Center on Wallops Island the nationrsquos third commercial spaceport The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority a collaborative effort of the state the Center for Innovative Technology at Old Dominion University in Virginia NASA and private industry had developed the communications facility located at one end of NASArsquos Wallops Flight Facility The spaceport was one of 18 sites competing to launch the VentureStarTM a privately

584 NASA ldquoMartian Moon Phobos Hip-Deep in Powderrdquo news release 98-164 11 September 1998 Jane E Allen for Associated Press ldquoMartian Moonrdquo 12 September 1998 585 NASA ldquoArthur Stephenson Named To Head Marshall Space Flight Centerrdquo revised news release 98-163a 11 September 1998 Space News ldquoMarshall Gets Director After Eight-Month Waitrdquo 14ndash20 September 1998 586 NASA ldquoNASA Selects First University-Class Explorersrdquo news release 98-165 11 September 1998

164


owned space plane still in development which could eventually carry construction materials to the ISS587

16 September NASA regained control over SOHO and after successfully thawing the craftrsquos fuel determined that its rocket thrusters were useable NASA spokesperson William A Steigerwald of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) explained that flight controllers would check each individual system and instrument next and would then reestablish full automatic gyroscopic control588

Scientists studying images taken by NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft announced in a joint teleconference with Cornell University and NASArsquos JPL that Jupiterrsquos rings appeared to consist of dust created in the course of millions of years as asteroids and comets crashed into the four small moons nearest the planetrsquos surface⎯Metis Adrastea Amalthea and Thebe The images captured during several hours in November 1996 when Galileo was able to observe the rings lit up by the Sun had provided ldquounprecedented details of the tiny dust particlesrdquo Furthermore scientists observed that in the images ldquothe three rings stopped abruptly at different moonsrdquo Images from a second flyby in September 1997 had confirmed that ldquothe depths of the three rings matched the depths of the moonsrsquo orbitsrdquo and that material in the rings ldquomatched the dark red dust on the moonsrsquo surfacerdquo The scientists said that more moons than rings exist because some of the moons supply dust to more than one ring589

21 September NASA announced that California Institute of Technology would continue to manage and operate NASArsquos JPL under a new five-year contract valued at US$625 billion The contract would support such programs as the Mars Global Surveyor robotic exploration program the Cassini mission to Saturn NASA Origins Program missions including the Space Infrared Telescope Facility Earth-Observing spacecraft and the Deep Space Network of communications antennas590

25 September NASA awarded its combined space operations contract to Lockheed Martin covering operations at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville Alabama and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California The contract worth US$19 billion for the first five years with a five-year renewal worth an additional US$15 billion covered the cost of directing monitoring and downloading data from spacecraft NASA

587 Sonja Barisic ldquoFirm Gives a Big Boost to Spaceportrdquo Roanoke Times (VA) 15 September 1998 Karen Jolly Davis ldquo$45 Million Contribution Gives Wallops Island Spaceport a Boostrdquo Virginian Pilot and the Ledger-Star (Norfolk VA) 15 September 1998 588 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoSolar Probe Back Under Controlrdquo 17 September 1998 589 NASA ldquoGalileo Finds Jupiterrsquos Rings Formed by Dust Blasted Off Small Moonsrdquo news release 98-167 15 September 1998 New York Times ldquoNew Images Clear Up a Jupiter Mystery Its Rings Are Just Dustrdquo 16 September 1998 Dennis Cauchon ldquoScientists Solve Mystery of Jupiterrsquos Rings Pictures Suggest Asteroid Impacts Stirred Moon Dustrdquo USA Today 16 September 1998 590 NASA ldquoNASA Awards New Contract for Operation of Jet Propulsion Laboratoryrdquo news release C98-o 21 September 1998

165


estimated that the contract consolidating work previously done under 17 separate contracts would save US$14 billion over 10 years591

29 September NASA announced that an intense wave of gamma rays emanating from a magnetar 20000 light-years away from Earth had struck Earthrsquos atmosphere on 27 August Stanford University professor Umran Inan remarked that the occurrence which had a measurable effect on Earth was extremely rare since the event occurred outside the solar system The radiation wave was ldquoso powerful that it blasted sensitive detectors to maximum or off scale on at least seven scientific spacecraft in Earth-orbit and around the solar systemrdquo592

OCTOBER 1998

1 October On NASArsquos 40th anniversary President of the Space Frontier Foundation Richard N Tumlinson and NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin spoke before the US House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics about space exploration and the possibility of privatizing space ventures Tumlinsonrsquos organization advocated limiting NASArsquos role to supporting technology and research programs He proposed commercializing the Shuttle fleet and privatizing NASA field centers to reduce the costs of space exploration and eventual colonization Goldin advocated reducing costs as well but did not respond to Tumlinsonrsquos proposals He also outlined new technologies that NASA was developing to cut the cost of rockets and satellites Goldin remarked that NASA ldquowould form partnerships with industry for lsquocutting-edge research developmentrsquordquo also emphasizing NASArsquos support of government loans to fuel the growth of the space industry in the United States593

2 October NASA and Russian Space Agency officials announced that Russia had agreed to sell research time aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for US$60 million with payment dependent on the Russian agencyrsquos completion of critical milestones The ISS collaborators including representatives of the 16 countries participating in the ISS program had reached the agreement during a week of meetings in Moscow Russia had missed three target dates because of insufficient funds The deal part of NASArsquos efforts to bail out its partner and to ldquoprevent costly new delaysrdquo in the construction and launch of the ISS did not release Russia from its obligations to build the service module As the Moscow meeting concluded NASA officials also announced that the launches of the first ISS components the Zarya and Unity modules remained on

591 NASA ldquoLockheed Martin Space Operations Co Awarded Contract To Manage NASArsquos Space Operationsrdquo contract announcement c98-p 25 September 1998 Peter Behr ldquoLockheed Team Wins NASA Contract $34 Billion Big Beats Out Boeingrdquo Washington Post 26 September 1998 Anna Wilde Mathews ldquoLockheed Group Wins NASA Pact for $344 Billionrdquo Wall Street Journal 28 September 1998 592 NASA ldquoTremendous Gamma-Ray Flare Blasts Earthrdquo news release 98-172 29 September 1998 593 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoUPI Science Newsrdquo 2 October 1998 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoNASA Urged To Sell Shuttlesrdquo 1 October 1998

166


schedule and that the international partners had agreed to reconvene to refine the ISS assembly sequence at the launch of the Unity module from Kennedy Space Center (KSC)594

5 October Pursuant to H Res 572 the US House of Representatives agreed to an amended version of HR 1702 the Commercial Space Act of 1998595 The legislation gave the Federal Aviation Administration the authority to issue licenses to private companies for the launch of reusable space vehicles like NASArsquos Shuttle Supporters of the measure stressed that enactment of the law would ldquobetter enable American companies to compete in an increasingly competitive international marketplacerdquo warning that without this law the United States would risk losing the space industry to overseas markets The legislation also required NASA to submit a report and an independently conducted market study to Congress identifying commercial opportunities and evaluating commercial interest in the development of the ISS596

George W Lewis Jr NASA aeronautical engineer and son of George W Lewis former research director of NASArsquos predecessor agency the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics died at his home at the age of 81 He had worked for 30 years in Cleveland Ohio at Lewis Research Center which NASA had named for his father597

6 October The Russian government agreed to pay a US$445 million debt to the Russian Space Agency to ensure that the agency would be able to complete a long-delayed component of the new space station Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev said that the government had agreed to pay the debt in three installments in October November and December598

7 October US Representative F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) convened a hearing before the House Committee on Science and Technology to discuss NASArsquos request for an additional US$60 million to purchase hardware from Russia for the ISS over and above the US$12 billion in space-related funds already paid to Russia NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin indicated that the additional funding was essential and that without it the program would risk termination Sensenbrenner refused to support approval of the funding without a detailed explanation from US Department of State and White House officials of why the program needed additional funds Sensenbrenner had asked Jacob Lew of the Office of Management and Budget and Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to speak at the hearing but both failed to appear Sensenbrenner said he could not ldquogo along with NASArsquos request to start bailing out the Russian

594 NASA ldquoStatement Following Conclusion of Moscow Meetingsrdquo news release 98-176 2 October 1998 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoRussian Space Agency Makes Salerdquo 5 October 1998 William J Broad ldquoTo Buy Some Time Russia To Sell US Some Time in Spacerdquo New York Times 5 October 1998 595 On 28 October 1998 Congress enacted HR 1702 into law with Pub L No 105-303 the Commercial Space Act of 1998 596 Jim Abrams for Associated Press ldquoHouse Bills Help Federal Workersrdquo 5 October 1998 Associated Press ldquoHouse Sends Senate Bill To Allow Private Space Launchesrdquo 5 October 1998 597 Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH) ldquoGeorge W Lewis 81 Was An Engineer at NASArdquo 9 October 1998 598 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoRussian Government To Pay $445 Mln Debt to Space Agencyrdquo 6 October 1998

167


space programrdquo stating that he had seen no convincing evidence that either NASA or the White House or Russia ldquowould make good use of the moneyrdquo599

8 October NASA announced that a long-exposure infrared image taken with a camera on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had uncovered the most distant galaxies ever seen HSTrsquos Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) had detected galaxies that might be over 12 billion light-years away depending on which cosmological models scientists used NASArsquos Acting Associate Administrator for Space Science Edward J Weiler deemed the discovery a major step toward fulfilling one of HSTrsquos key objectives to search for the ldquofaintest and farthest objects in the universerdquo600

13 October NASA announced that two of its research pilots had been the first Americans to fly a modified Russian Tu-144 supersonic jetliner participating in three evaluation flights over a two-week period during mid-to-late September at Zhukovsky Air Development Center near Moscow Pilots Robert Rivers of Langley Research Center and C Gordon Fullerton of Dryden Flight Research Center had flown the jetliner as part of a jointly funded activity under the auspices of NASArsquos High-Speed Research Program and the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group The purpose of the test flights was to gain operational experience and experimental flight data to develop an ldquoenvironmentally friendly second-generation supersonic transportrdquo in the United States601

14 October NASA announced that it had restructured and renamed its Office of Aeronautics and Space Transportation Technology known as Code R appointing retired US Air Force Lieutenant General Spence M Armstrong to head the newly reorganized Office of Aero-Space Technology NASArsquos spokesperson said that NASArsquos management had created three new divisions within the Office⎯Goals Programs and Institutions⎯to help NASA achieve its goals Major goals included accessing space more cheaply with reusable launch vehicle programs creating greater synergy between aeronautics and space transportation technology decreasing aircraft accident rates while tripling the nationrsquos aviation-system capacity diminishing aircraft noise and emissions and reducing the cost of air travel and the cost of placing payloads in orbit The role of the Goals Division would be to implement the challenging development of new technologies that of the Programs Division would be to manage the various programs within the Office and the Institutions Division would oversee ldquoinstitutional problems at the field centersrdquo602

20 October NASA officials announced that US Senator John H Glenn Jr would not participate in the melatonin portion of a sleep study planned for the upcoming Shuttle mission The studyrsquos

599 Paul Recer ldquoAngry Congressman Threatens To Withhold Space Station Moneyrdquo San Diego Union-Tribune (CA) 8 October 1998 600 NASA ldquoHubble Goes to the Limit in Search of Farthest Galaxiesrdquo news release 98-179 8 October 1998 601 NASA ldquoNASA Pilots Fly Russian Tu-144LL Flying Laboratoryrdquo news release 98-186 13 October 1998 602 NASA ldquoAeronautics Enterprise Reorganizes and Changes Namerdquo news release 98-187 14 October Aerospace Daily ldquoNASA Renames Reorganizes Code R under Armstrongrdquo 15 October 1998

168


principal investigator Charles A Czeisler of Brigham and Womenrsquos Hospital in Boston said that Glenn had failed to meet one of the medical criteria for the study Czeisler did not specify the reason and Glenn declined to elaborate Researchers had rated the melatonin experiment as one of two top priorities among the human studies to take place during Glennrsquos Shuttle flight Four members of the Shuttle flight for the Neurolab mission which occurred earlier in 1998 had participated in the melatonin study and Chiaki Mukai a member of Glennrsquos crew would be a fifth participant However Glennrsquos disqualification meant that the scientists would be unable to test two of their four hypotheses603

21 October After experiencing two disastrous launch failures in 1996 and 1997 the European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched its French-made Ariane 5 rocket and recoverable space capsule from Korou French Guiana The 16 million-pound (800-ton 726000-kilogram or 726-tonne) rocket carried a 26-tonne (29-ton 5700-pound or 2600-kilogram) mock-up of a telecommunications satellite and a 28-tonne (31-ton 6200-pound or 2800-kilogram) recoverable capsule With the successful recovery of the capsule from the Pacific Ocean France became the fourth country to develop such technology following the United States Russia and China French scientists had designed the Ariane 5 rocket to carry payloads of 59minus68 tonnes (65minus75 tons 13000minus15000 pounds or 5900minus6800 kilograms) into geostationary orbit using twice the power of the Ariane 4 to provide launches for low-altitude orbits and interplanetary space probes and to lift the cargo vehicle that would be the ESArsquos contribution to the ISS604

22 October Scientists studying Galileo data published findings in the journal Nature describing the likely presence of a subsurface liquid salty ocean on Callisto Jupiterrsquos second largest moon Margaret G Kivelson space physics professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and NASArsquos Principal Investigator for Galileorsquos magnetometer instrument explained that data showed variability in Callistorsquos magnetic field similar to that of another Jupiter moon Europa However neither Callistorsquos atmosphere which lacks charged particles nor Callistorsquos icy crust is a good conductor for generating a magnetic field Kivelson explained that a layer of salty melted ice could carry ldquosufficient electrical currents to produce the magnetic fieldrdquo In addition she noted that Galileo data indicated electrical currents flowing in opposite directions at different times a ldquokey signature consistent with the idea of a salty oceanrdquo However scientists had concluded that unlike Europa Callisto was unlikely ever to support life even if it had an ocean because of its insufficient energy sources Callistorsquos only apparent source of heat is radioactive elements whereas Europarsquos closer position to Jupiter means it possesses tidal energy605

24 October

603 Lawrence K Altman ldquoGlenn Unable To Perform Experiment Planned for Space Flightrdquo New York Times 21 October 1998 604 John-Thor Dahlburg ldquoThird Tryrsquos the Charm for European Rocketrdquo Los Angeles Times 22 October 1998 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoAriane Capsule Test Called a Successrdquo 21 October 1998 605 NASA ldquoJupiterrsquos Moon Callisto May Hide Salty Oceanrdquo news release 98-192 21 October 1998 K K Khurana et al ldquoInduced Magnetic Fields as Evidence for Subsurface Oceans in Europa and Callistordquo Nature 395 no 6704 (22 October 1998) 777ndash780

169


NASA successfully launched Deep Space 1 a spacecraft that could ldquothink for itselfrdquo Driven by ion propulsion Deep Space 1 was the first craft to rely on this technology for its primary propulsion The craftrsquos destination was an asteroid 120 million miles (193 million kilometers) away from Earth Although tracking stations encountered initial difficulties receiving signals from the spacecraft Deep Space 1 communicated 2 hours after liftoff that it was on ldquothe right courserdquo and ldquoin good shaperdquo NASA scientists expected the spacecraft to travel 450 million miles (724 million kilometers) to catch up with the moving asteroid Without the ion-propulsion technology it would have required 10 times more fuel to reach its target The craft was also flying with 10 other ldquofuturistic technologiesrdquo such as lens-covered solar arrays to generate additional power and a radio beacon to communicate with ground controllers without their prompting the probe from Earth606

27 October The third and final Progress cargo spacecraft of the year Progress M-40 arrived at Mir docking smoothly and delivering food water fuel a giant space mirror and other scientific equipment NASA had delayed the cargo craftrsquos launch several times since its originally scheduled launch date in August 1998607

Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that they had placed GOES-8 the weather satellite responsible for monitoring the East Coast in a ldquosafe hold shutdownrdquo after it had developed problems with its attitude sensors GOES-10 was then required to watch the entire country although it could provide images only every 30 minutes instead of every 15 minutes as it did when each of the two satellites was able to monitor half of the United States NASA officials were especially concerned about monitoring East Coast weather because of worry that winds from Hurricane Mitch located over the coast of Central America could interfere with the upcoming launch of the Space Shuttle carrying veteran astronaut US Senator John H Glenn Jr608

NASArsquos Ames Research Center awarded a five-year US$993 million contract to Sverdrup Technology Inc of Tullahoma Tennessee to provide testing and facility operation including wind tunnels and arc-jet testing609

28 October NASA awarded KSC Small Expendable Launch Vehicle Services (SELVS-KSC) contracts to Coleman Research Corporation of Orlando Florida and Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles Virginia to provide launch services for NASA and for NASA-sponsored small-class payloads These indefinite deliveryndashindefinite quantity contracts ranging in value from US$100000 to US$400000 were part of NASArsquos effort to fulfill the goals and objectives of its Human

606 New York Times ldquoUS Launches a Spacecraft That Thinks for Itselfrdquo 25 October 1998 607 Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 27 October 1998 Spacewarn Bulletin no 540 1 November 1998 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx540html (accessed 28 October 2008) 608 Randolph E Schmid for Associated Press ldquoEast Weather Satellite Shuts Downrdquo 28 October 1998 609 NASA ldquoNASA Awards $99 Million Contract to Tennessee Firmrdquo contract announcement C98-q 27 October 1998

170


Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise NASA expected to award up to 16 missions over the contractrsquos five-year period610

29 October Space Shuttle Discovery Mission STS-95 launched from KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida carrying Commander Curtis L Brown Jr Pilot Steven W Lindsey Mission Specialists Scott E Parazynski Stephen K Robinson and Pedro Duque and Payload Specialists Chiaki Mukai and John H Glenn Jr The primary objectives of STS-95 included conveying a variety of science experiments inside the SPACEHAB module deploying and retrieving the Spartan free-flyer payload performing operations with the HST Orbiting Systems Test and transporting the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker payloads The historic mission also returned veteran astronaut John H Glenn Jr to space Thirty-six years after Glenn had first orbited Earth the seventy-seven-year-old astronaut became the oldest person to fly in orbit As a veteran of NASArsquos early Mercury program Glenn had been the first American to orbit Earth On 20 February 1962 in a flight lasting 5 hours Glenn had orbited Earth three times in a tiny capsule After he had passed a battery of medical tests and participated in astronaut training NASA had selected US Senator John H Glenn Jr as a crew member of STS-95 so that scientists could study ldquohow space travel affects an aging astronautrsquos bodyrdquo611

NOVEMBER 1998

2 November NASArsquos Ames Research Center awarded a six-year US$90 million contract to Logicon Syscon Inc of Falls Church Virginia to provide operations development maintenance and modification of the Centerrsquos aeronautical simulation facilities The contract included the operation and maintenance of the worldrsquos largest motion-base simulator the Vertical Motion Simulator designed to aid in the study of helicopter and vertical short takeoff and landing issues as well as the Crew-Vehicle Systems Research Facility designed for the study of human factors in aviation safety612

3 November Astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Discovery successfully retrieved the Spartan spacecraft thus completing a priority project of the nine-day mission The crew had deployed the satellite on 1 November to record observations of the Sunrsquos outer atmosphere and the solar wind Spartan had lagged 40 miles (64 kilometers) behind the Shuttle in free flight as it recorded the data The flight was the last in a series of four flights begun in 1993 to ldquogather observations at different points in the [S]unrsquos 11-year cycle of magnetic activityrdquo NASA had originally scheduled the mission for November 1997 but astronauts had ldquofailed to send a crucial commandrdquo before

610 NASA ldquoNASA Awards Launch Services Contracts for Small Payloadsrdquo contract announcement c98-r 28 October 1998 611 Bill Sammon ldquoSenator Upholds Status as Hero with His Return to Orbitrdquo Washington Times 30 October 1998 John Noble Wilford ldquoPioneer Returns as Crewman in the Shuttlerdquo New York Times 29 October 1998 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-95 John Glennrsquos Flight SPACEHABrdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-95html (accessed 20 October 2008) 612 NASA ldquoNASA Awards $90 Million Contract to Virginia Firmrdquo news release c98-s 2 November 1998

171


releasing the satellite so Spartan had gathered no data The crew had also tested an experimental laser range-finding device mounted in the Shuttle aiming at targets on Spartan613

7 November Astronaut John H Glenn Jr and his crewmates returned to Earth aboard Space Shuttle Discovery Despite concern that the landing might be rough because of a missing door on Discoveryrsquos drag chute the craft landed safely at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida The door had fallen off during the 29 October launch Mission Control had warned Pilot Steven W Lindsey that a braking chute might deploy unexpectedly but it remained safely in place throughout the landing process614

10 November The ion-propulsion engine on NASArsquos Deep Space 1 probe shut down suddenly after running for 4frac12 minutes the first time the probe had turned on its engine since the spacecraftrsquos launch three weeks before Ground controllers did not know the cause of the shutdown and made several unsuccessful attempts to restart the engine615

11 November Ground controllers in Madrid Spain lost contact with the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it approached the edge of the solar system but were able to reestablish communication The probe was ldquopowering down to conserve its plutonium energy sourcerdquo when controllers lost contact NASA had launched Voyager 2 in 1977 After the craft had toured Jupiter Saturn Uranus and Neptune NASA located it traveling toward the edge of the solar system at about 52 billion miles (84 billion kilometers) from Earth Scientists did not know why controllers had temporarily lost communication with the craft616

15 November Dr William K Douglas the physician who had overseen the care of the seven Mercury astronauts died of a viral infection at the age of 76 As part of his assignment to NASArsquos Manned Spacecraft Center at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia Dr Douglas had been ldquopersonally responsible for the medical care and flight preparation of the seven Mercury astronautsrdquo He had cared for Alan B Shepard Jr Virgil I ldquoGusrdquo Grissom John H Glenn Jr and M Scott Carpenter when they undertook the nationrsquos first four human spaceflights After retiring from the US Air Force in 1977 Dr Douglas had joined the McDonnell Douglas Corporation where he had helped design an orbiting space station before retiring in 1988 In

613 Washington Times ldquoGlenn Reports No Space Sickness as Discovery Releases Sun Gazerrdquo 2 November 1998 Washington Times ldquoAstronauts Snag Sun Observer To Complete a Primary Mission Glenn 77 Undergoes More Tests of His Response to Spacerdquo 4 November 1998 New York Times ldquoShuttle Easily Regains Satellite and Photosrdquo 4 November 1998 614 Kathy Sawyer ldquoGlenn Floats Back to Earth on the Wings of Discoveryrdquo Washington Post 8 November 1998 NASA ldquoNASA Mission Archives STS-95rdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchives sts-95html (accessed 11 June 2007) 615 Washington Times ldquoEngine Failure Strikes Space Proberdquo 12 November 1998 New York Times ldquoInnovative Engine on US Spacecraft Mysteriously Shuts Downrdquo 13 November 1998 616 Associated Press ldquoVoyager Glitchrdquo 18 November 1998

172


1992 Douglas was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo New Mexico617

16 November NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin appointed Edward J Weiler Acting Associate Administrator for NASArsquos Office of Space Science effective immediately Weiler had acted in the position since Wesley T Huntress Jrrsquos departure on 28 September Since March 1996 Weiler had served as Science Director of the Astronomical Search for Origins and Planetary Systems within the Office of Space Science He had been a program scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) since 1979618

17 November Satellites survived the annual Leonid meteor storm with no major damage Astronomers had predicted the storm would be the most intense in three decades because Comet Tempel-Tuttle had swung closer to the Sun in February as it does every 33 years creating a greater-thanshyaverage amount of comet dust Scientists had feared that particles traveling at 43 miles (69 kilometers) per second could shred satellitesrsquo solar arrays damage sensitive instruments or cause circuits to short619

19 November NASArsquos ER-2 aircraft a ldquoclose relativerdquo of the U-2 spy plane officially broke the altitude record for medium-weight planes when it flew to 68700 feet (20900 meters) nearly twice the cruising altitude of commercial airliners during a mission to measure components of the atmosphere A Canadian P-42 aircraft had set the previous record of 62500 feet (19050 meters) in 1988 NASA officials said the craft had flown at such altitudes in the past but this flight was the first time that scientists had documented its altitude and made it public620

20 November After a delay of more than a year a Russian Proton booster rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying into orbit the first module of the International Space Station (ISS) the 412-foot (126-meter) Zarya The role of Zarya translated as Sunrise would be to act as a ldquospace tugboatrdquo in the early stages of construction providing propulsion power and communications621

22 November Russiarsquos first privately owned satellite a Bonum-1 communications satellite launched successfully from Cape Canaveral Florida aboard a Delta rocket NASA had canceled the first three attempts to launch the satellite because of numerous technical problems The launch was also the first time a US rocket had placed a Russian commercial satellite in orbit and the first

617 Wolfgang Saxon ldquoWilliam Douglas 76 the Doctor for the Seven Early Astronautsrdquo New York Times 24 November 1998 618 NASA ldquoWeiler Named Associate Administrator for Space Sciencerdquo news release 98-204 16 November 1998 619 Paul Hoversten ldquoSpace Storm Fizzles Satellites Survive lsquoDrizzlersquordquo USA Today 18 November 1998 620 Agence France-Presse ldquoNASA Airplane Flies High into Sky ER-2 Able To Break Record for Altituderdquo Washington Times 23 November 1998 621 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoRussia Puts First Segment of International Space Station in Orbitrdquo 20 November 1998

173


time an American company had built a satellite for a Russian company Hughes Space and Communications had built the Bonum-1 for Moscow-based Media Most owner of Russiarsquos largest television network The chairperson of the board of Media Most Vladimir A Goussinsky described the event as a ldquorevolutionrdquo because the satellite would provide up to 50 television channels for 200 million viewers in Russia western Siberia and Eastern Europe622

23 November NASA released results from the Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S) to the worldwide astronomy community for research as well as to the public HDF-S was a 10-day observation that had taken place in October 1998 With all of its new cameras and other instruments trained simultaneously down the same 12 billionndashlight-yearndashlong ldquocorridorrdquo the team of astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute and NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center had captured a ldquocore samplerdquo of the universe doubling the number of far-flung galaxies available for astronomers to study The astronomers had studied a region in the constellation Tucana near the south celestial pole complementing a previous deep-field study carried out in late 1995 when scientists aimed the HST at a ldquosmall patch of space near the Big Dipperrdquo623

25 November NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that the ion engine responsible for the Deep Space 1 probersquos primary propulsion was back in operation after its unexpected shutdown two weeks earlier Scientists believed that metallic grit or another type of contaminant located between two high-voltage grids had caused the engine to shut down after running for 4frac12 minutes624

Russian Space Agency officials reported for the first time since Zaryarsquos launch that the module had experienced malfunctions At a press conference Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev explained that none of the modulersquos three minor malfunctions had any impact on the modulersquos overall operations Koptev reported that one of the eight batteries storing energy collected from the modulersquos solar panels had not performed properly but he emphasized that Zarya needed only four of the eight batteries to operate Mission Control had detected an ldquounexpected abundance of humidityrdquo inside the module but engineers did not yet know its cause The third problem involved a malfunctioning antenna in the craftrsquos automatic docking system a device that the first ISS crew would not need until after their arrival in January 2000625

DECEMBER 1998

1 December NASA announced its selection of LittonPRC of Mclean Virginia to perform work under NASArsquos sounding rocket operations contract consolidating several previous contracts The four-year contract an indefinite deliveryndashindefinite quantity contract worth between US$119 million

622 Robyn Suriano ldquoDelta Lifts Russian Satelliterdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 23 November 1998 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoUS Broadcast Satellite Was Launched for Russiardquo 23 November 1998 623 NASA ldquoThe Universe lsquoDown Underrsquo Is the Target of Hubblersquos Latest Deep-Viewrdquo news release 98-206 23 November 1998 624 NASA ldquoDeep Space 1 Ion Propulsion System Starts Uprdquo news release 98-215 25 November 1998 Associated Press ldquoSpacecraftrsquos Troubled Ion Engine Restartsrdquo Washington Post 26 November 1998 625 Adam Tanner for Reuters ldquoMinor Problems Plague New Space Stationrdquo 25 November 1998

174


and US$2118 million included two three-year options worth up to an additional US$5725 million Goddard Space Flight Centerrsquos (GSFCrsquos) Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island Virginia was to provide services including design fabrication integration testing and performance of mission operations for sounding rocket missions NASA considered the contract an integral part of the Wallops 2000 strategic plan initiated in 1997 to ensure the facilityrsquos future ldquostability and vitalityrdquo626

NASA awarded US$33 million in grants to 48 researchers to conduct microgravity biotechnology research through NASArsquos Office of Life and Microgravity Science and Applications To those investigators awarded the 40 grants for ground-based research NASA provided access to its microgravity research facilities including aircraft flying parabolic trajectories and sounding rockets NASA awarded eight grants to flight-definition investigators to prepare for experiments on the International Space Station (ISS)627

2 December NASA modified a contract with Boeing Information Space and Defense Systems increasing by US$1634 million the companyrsquos contract for work on the ISS Under the modified contract Boeing would supply additional engineering support and prelaunch testing for the ISS The original eight-year prime contract effective since 1995 had a value of US$71 billion and covered the construction and integration of the ISS The modification covered sustained engineering for station elements engineering support following a componentrsquos delivery to NASA and support of multielement integrated testing628

NASA announced that Raytheon STX Corporation of Lanham Maryland would provide routine data operations research and development support for the Space Science Data Operations Office and the National Space Science Data Center at GSFC under a two-year contract with three one-year options Valued at more than US$33 million the contract covered the processing of space-science data and the acquisition modeling analysis archiving and dissemination of NASArsquos archival data to the scientific community educators and the public629

4 December After a one-day delay Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida carrying Commander Robert D Cabana Pilot Frederick W ldquoRickrdquo Sturckow and Mission Specialists Nancy J Currie Jerry L Ross James H Newman and Sergei K Krikalev The purpose of STS-88 was to connect the US-built Unity module of the ISS to the first ISS component Zarya The Russian Space Agency had placed Zarya in orbit in November Launch controllers had scrubbed the liftoff of Endeavour planned for 3 December after the master alarm sounded in the cockpit with only 4frac12 minutes remaining in the 10-minute countdown window Engineers had determined that the alarm indicated momentary low pressure

626 NASA ldquoNASA Selects LittonPRC for NASA Sounding Rocket Programrdquo contract announcement C98-t 1 December 1998 627 NASA ldquoNASA Announces Research Grants in Microgravity Biotechnologyrdquo news release 98-217 1 December 1998 628 NASA ldquoEngineering and Testing Support To Be Supplied by International Space Station Contract Modificationrdquo contract announcement c98-u 2 December 1998 629 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Raytheon STX To Provide Goddard Supportrdquo contract announcement c98-v 2 December 1998

175


in the hydraulics system The crew experienced no problems with the second launch until another alarm sounded shortly after they had reached orbit indicating that one of three hydraulic power units had overheated The crew then switched to a backup controller to allow the overheated unit to cool before shutting down each unit as planned630

5 December A modified L-1011 jetliner flying at 40000 feet (12000 meters) dropped a Pegasus XL rocket carrying the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) designed to study the formation of stars and planets The launch marked the beginning of a two-year US$64 million mission to learn more about the ldquocomposition of interstellar clouds and monitor how they cool as they collapse to form stars and planetsrdquo The 397-pound (179-kilogram) SWAS would study water molecular oxygen atomic carbon and isotopic carbon monoxide by means of submillimeter wave radiation which scientists cannot observe from the ground NASArsquos GSFC managed the mission631

6 December Using precision flying Space Shuttle Endeavourrsquos robotic arm cameras and a computerized vision system the US-Russian crew of Endeavour successfully joined the US module Unity to the Russian module Zarya With a weight of 21 tons (19100 kilograms or 191 tonnes) Zarya was the ldquomost massive objectrdquo that the robotic arm had ever lifted Because Unity blocked the astronautsrsquo view from the Shuttlersquos window they relied on a system of cameras as well as on the new Canadian Space Vision System to provide visual cues concerning the two unitsrsquo exact positions632

At an American Geophysical Union meeting a team of research scientists led by David E Smith of GSFC discussed new research findings based on data collected in the spring and summer by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) The data indicated that the ice cap on Marsrsquos north pole although definitely water ice is much smaller than previously thought The scientists concluded that the amount of water in the ice cap is not voluminous enough to have created the ldquodeep gullies that scar the surface of the planetrdquo nor could it have filled an ancient ocean MOLA images showed the ice cap resting in a deep basin possibly created by an asteroid impact Scientists described this formation as unique in the solar system The team of researchers remarked that their findings raised more questions about Marsrsquos formation and conditions than they answered633

630 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoSpace Stationrdquo 4 December 1998 Brad Liston for Reuters ldquoNASA Hopes for Another Shuttle Try on Fridayrdquo 3 December 1998 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-88 First International Space Station Flightrdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-88html (accessed 28 October 2008) 631 Associated Press ldquoNASA Launches Probe To Study Starsrdquo 5 December 1998 CNNcom ldquoNASA Launches Satellite To Study Star Formationrdquo httpwwwcnncomTECHspace981205swaslaunch (accessed 27 October 2008) 632 Kathy Sawyer ldquoUS Russian Modules Are Linked in Orbit Foundation for New Space Station Formedrdquo Washington Post 7 December 1998 633 NASA ldquoLaser Provides First 3-D View of Marsrsquo North Polerdquo news release 98-219 7 December 1998 Joseph B Verrenga for Associated Press ldquoIcecap Seen on Marsrsquo North Polerdquo 6 December 1998 Maria T Zuber et al ldquoObservations of the North Polar Region of Mars from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeterrdquo Science 282 no 5396 (11 December 1998) 2053

176


7 December Astronauts Jerry L Ross and James H Newman undertook a 4frac12-hour-long spacewalk to install 40 electrical and data connectors linking the US-built connecting module Unity with the Russian-built power module Zarya The pair also bolted handrails to the side of Unity and photographed two of Zaryarsquos backup docking antennas which had failed to deploy Russian ground controllers sent commands to power up Zarya jump-starting Unityrsquos electrical systems Ross and Newman then removed thermal covers from Unityrsquos outside computers to prevent overheating634

8 December Intel Corporation agreed to grant NASA the US Department of Energy Sandia National Laboratory and the US Armed Forces a royalty-free license to adapt the Pentium chip to withstand extreme radiation so that other agencies could use it in spacecraft and military equipment635

9 December Astronauts Jerry L Ross and James H Newman undertook their second spacewalk lasting 7 hours to install two 100-pound (454-kilogram) communications antennas on each side of the Unity module They hooked one of the antennas to a video cable running from the Zarya module Then the two astronauts erected a folding sunshade over a computer outside of Unity bundling loose cables that ran along the exterior of the module Ross and Newman also removed the restraints that had stabilized the four Unity hatchways during the launch Finally Newman successfully tapped free one of Zaryarsquos stuck antennas using a 10-foot-long (3-meter-long) extendable grappling hook636

11 December Endeavourrsquos Commander Robert D Cabana and Russian cosmonaut Sergei K Krikalev leading the four other crew members entered the Unity module for the first time via an airlock attached to the Shuttle The crew checked air pressure and quality turned on lights and systems detached components that were stored in the modules and set up a communications system connecting internal components with the two antennas outside Unity Astronauts Jerry L Ross and James H Newman had installed the two antennas on 9 December The Shuttle crew spent 28 hours inside the modules before turning off the lights and closing the station637

After a one-day delay to correct a software problem Mars Climate Orbiter launched from Cape Canaveral Florida atop a Delta II rocket NASA had scheduled the 1400-pound (635-kilogram) robotic craft paired with Mars Polar Lander to launch on 3 January 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander the second pair headed to study Mars following Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor were part of NASArsquos ldquolong-term strategy for Mars explorationrdquo calling for small robotic craft ldquoto leave Earth two at a timerdquo about every two years According to

634 Paul Hoversten ldquoSpacewalkers Complete a Tricky Wiring Jobrdquo USA Today 8 December 1998 635 Dean Takahashi ldquoIntel Corp To Send Its Pentium Chip into Outer Space Firm To Grant Royalty-Free License to US To Adapt Product for Spaceshipsrdquo Wall Street Journal 9 December 1998 636 Warren E Leary ldquo2 Astronauts Make 2d Space Walk To Install Antennas on Stationrdquo New York Times 10 December 1998 637 Warren E Leary ldquoAstronauts Enter International Space Stationrdquo New York Times 11 December 1998 Paul Hoversten ldquoShuttle Finishes Linkup with Space Stationrdquo USA Today 14 December 1998

177


NASArsquos plan Climate Orbiterrsquos first task would be to provide a two-way communications relay between ground controllers and Polar Lander after Landerrsquos arrival and during its planned 60ndash90 day mission Thereafter Orbiter would generate weather maps and profile the Martian atmosphere for a full Martian year or 687 days638

12 December Jerry L Ross and James H Newman made their final spacewalk to free the second Russian docking antenna on Zarya which had failed to unfurl The pair also finished outfitting the station The astronauts had required a total of 21 hours over three spacewalks to complete the work639

15 December Ending one of NASArsquos ldquomost successful and historic missionsrdquo with a rare night landing Space Shuttle Endeavour landed at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida after its weeklong linkup with the new ISS Before departing the ISS on 13 December Pilot Frederick W ldquoRickrdquo Sturckow flew around the station slowly while the crew photographed the ISS permitting ground controllers to see the station for the first time NASArsquos Deputy Station Chief Frank L Culbertson Jr remarked that the mission was as historically significant as that of Apollo 8 the first piloted mission to the Moon and that the hardware of ISS was the foundation of ldquowhat will put humanity in space foreverrdquo640

17 December NASArsquos tailless single-engine 18-foot-long (55-meter-long) X-36 airplane resumed flight-testing a system to help a damaged airplane continue its flight Over a 20-minute period a pilot used remote control from the ground to fly the plane sending signals to simulate damage The first in a series of five to 10 flights the test was part of Reconfigurable Control for Tailless Fighter Aircraft (RESTORE) RESTORE was testing neural-network software that permitted a plane to reconfigure flight-control surfaces automatically The software would have both civil and military applications641

18 December KSC officials broke ground on a complex for testing a NASA experimental rocket the X-34 Engineers had designed the vehicle⎯a small winged rocket⎯to launch into orbit from an airplane and to return to Earth landing like an airplane Planning flight tests to begin in 2000 KSC hoped the new facility would attract commercial space enterprises such as Lockheedrsquos VentureStarTM still under development Facilities anywhere in the country would be able to

638 Kathy Sawyer ldquoMars Probe To Examine Climate NASA Launch Is First of Two Designed To Shed Light on Potential for Liferdquo Washington Post 12 December 1998 639 Paul Hoversten ldquoShuttle Finishes Linkuprdquo 640 Paul Hoversten ldquoShuttle Finishes Linkuprdquo United Press International ldquoShuttle Lands in Floridardquo 15 December 1998 NASA ldquoNASA Mission Archives STS-88rdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissions archivessts-88html 641 Jim Skeen ldquoA Bird Without a Tail Craft Will Mimic Damaged Airplanerdquo Los Angeles Daily News 18 December 1998

178


launch the VentureStarTM once completed because it would not use boosters or fuel tanks and therefore would not require a coastal launch site642

21 December NASA announced it had renamed the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility the Chandra X-ray Observatory in honor of the late Nobel Laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar NASA chose the name Chandra because it was the late scientistrsquos preferred name among friends and colleagues and because it means moon or luminous in Sanskrit NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin commented that Chandrasekhar had made ldquofundamental contributions to the theory of black holes and other phenomenardquo which the Chandra X-ray Observatory would study NASA also announced that it had set a new launch date for the observatory⎯no earlier than 8 April 1999643

29 December NASA announced that Colorado State University would lead a US$145 million study of clouds to better understand global warming and to ldquodramatically improverdquo weather forecasts The five-year project would use a satellite named CloudSat to capture three-dimensional global images of clouds644

JANUARY 1999

3 January NASA launched Mars Polar Lander from Cape Canaveral Florida atop a Boeing Delta II rocket three weeks after the launch of its companion craft Mars Climate Orbiter The craftrsquos main purpose was to search Mars for signs of water Lander carried machinery and two microprobes as well as a microphone to record the sounds of Martian wind Mars Polar Lander and Mars Climate Orbiter formed a pair the second launched in a 12-year series of dual missions to explore Mars with the ultimate goal of collecting a sample of Martian soil to bring to Earth by 2008645

6 January An independent study group commissioned by the US Air Force announced the findings of its investigation into the loss of business at Floridarsquos Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Retired US Air Force General Richard C Henry had headed the group comprising 11 government agencies and 19 aerospace firms After surveying commercial launch companies and satellite manufacturers the group had measured the cost and ease of doing business at Cape Canaveral against three prime competitors the European Space Agencyrsquos Kourou Space Center in French Guiana South America Kazakhstanrsquos Baikonur Cosmodrome primarily used by Russia and Chinarsquos Xichang Space Center General Richard Henry summarized the crux of the grouprsquos findings ldquocompanies regard Canaveral as superb in location and facilities but rank it second

642 Robyn Suriano ldquoNASA Breaks Ground for $8 Million Complex To Serve New Rocket Attract VentureStarrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 19 December 1998 643 NASA ldquoNASA Renames Telescope and Sets New Launch Daterdquo news release 98-225 21 December 1998 644 Bill Scanlon ldquoCSU Will Lead NASA Cloud Study $145 Million Project Is Designed To Improve Weather Forecasts Study Global Warmingrdquo Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 30 December 1998 645 Reuters ldquoUS Mars Probe Launched from Floridardquo 3 January 1999 Beth Dickey ldquoCraft Joins Mars Quest for Waterrdquo New York Times 4 January 1999

179


primarily because of the perception that the commercial customer is second to the government customerrdquo Companies had sought launch services elsewhere to avoid the bureaucratic red tape associated with Cape Canaveral Air Force Station operated by the US Air Force With increasing demand spaceports in South America Russia and China had been doing more business during the previous two decades at Floridarsquos expense The group issued three recommendations to correct the situation and to attract business to Florida 1) boost the number of launches staged from Cape Canaveral 2) shift to customer-friendly operations and 3) modernize launch-support systems at the spaceport many of which the United States had first implemented in the late 1950s and early 1960s646

7 January NASA Inspector General Roberta L Gross released a report estimating that NASA had ldquospent [US]$3 million in lsquoexcessive costsrsquordquo on its Houston-to-Moscow air-charter program The investigators criticized the program saying it was more expensive than commercial travel An investigation had revealed that the flights which typically used Boeing 727s seating 143 travelers sometimes carried as few as nine people The charter flights originated in Houston and usually stopped in Huntsville Alabama and Washington DC before continuing on to Moscow A few weeks before the release of the report NASArsquos Office of Space Flight had rejected a recommendation from the Inspector General to terminate the service arguing that the program ldquoprovided lsquotangible and intangiblersquo benefits to workers on the International Space Station [ISS]rdquo NASA had developed the program as a cost-saving measure and as an alternative to contracting with the US Department of Defense to transport employees involved with the multibillion-dollar space station program The Inspector General found that the chartered flights averaged around 50 people NASA had estimated a 90-passenger threshold for the program to realize savings In response to the demand of US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs Chairperson Fred Thompson (R-TN) that NASA ldquohalt this waste immediatelyrdquo Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced that NASA would terminate the program ldquoas soon as practicalrdquo647

11 January Mario Dario Grossi radio physicist and engineer died at the age of 74 in Boston Massachusetts Grossi developed the concept of tethered satellites and the hardware to make them possible Together with a colleague Grossi had conducted most of his work at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Grossi had first approached NASA with his concept in 1972 and in 1982 NASA had issued a contract to build a system In July 1992 NASA had tested the tether in space when astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis Mission STS-46 ldquoreeled out a half-ton [450shykilogram or 045-tonne] satellite of the Italian Space Agency dangling on a spaghetti-thin cord 12 miles [19 kilometers] longrdquo The successful test had provided data that would assist engineers in applying the tether satellite technology to build space stations or in ldquooperating instrument-laden satellites far from the [S]huttlerdquo648

12 January The National Research Council Committee on Space Shuttle Upgrades released a report cautioning NASA ldquonot to wait too long to choose between keeping the Shuttle until 2020 or

646 Todd Halvorson ldquoStudy Spaceport Must Change or Loserdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 7 January 1999 647 Michelle Mittelstadt for the Associated Press ldquoNASA Ends Moscow Charter Flightsrdquo 7 January 1999 648 Wolfgang Saxon ldquoM Grossi 74 Created Tether for Satellitesrdquo New York Times 18 January 1999

180


scrapping it after 2012 in favor of a new vehicle like Lockheed Martinrsquos proposed VentureStarrdquo The committee led by former astronaut and former head of the Space Shuttle Program Bryan D OrsquoConnor advised NASA to make a timely decision to either phase out the Shuttle upgrade program or make the major investments necessary for the Shuttle to carry out reliably its long-term mission The panel specifically addressed the Liquid Fly Back Booster (LFBB) the most expensive Shuttle upgrade under consideration with development costs estimated at between US$2 billion and US$7 billion The panelrsquos report revealed that NASA had not investigated enough alternatives to the LFBB to ensure that it was ldquothe most appropriate way to meet the needs of the Shuttle and other programsrdquo649

13 January NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced that the plutonium-powered Cassini spacecraft en route to Saturn had entered safe mode on 11 January The craft NASArsquos largest and most complex interplanetary probe had detected a possible error in its orientation which prompted it to halt all ldquonon-criticalrdquo activity while maintaining its communications link with Earth650

JPL appointed Glenn E Cunningham Manager of NASArsquos Mars Surveyor Operations Project as the new Deputy Director of JPLrsquos Mars Exploration Directorate In the newly created position JPL tasked Cunningham with overseeing the implementation and operations of all Mars missions through 2013 As Cunninghamrsquos successor JPL appointed Richard A Cook former Flight Operations Manager for the 1997 Mars Pathfinder Lander and Rover Mission to manage the Mars Surveyor Operations Project651

15 January At a Boeing Company awards ceremony NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin and U S Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) recognized ldquomembers of the Delta launch team who were instrumental in sending NASA spacecraft to Marsrdquo awarding Jay L Witzling Vice President of Delta Programs with NASArsquos Public Service Medal Other critical leaders in the program also received awards for their dedication and participation In his remarks Goldin commented on the characteristics that made Boeingrsquos Delta rocket ldquomore and more the launch vehicle of choicerdquo Goldin explained that the Delta rocket was the least expensive launch vehicle had the fastest turnaround and had demonstrated the highest degree of reliability Goldin also commented that the four launches to Mars aboard Delta rockets had ldquochanged the face of the space programrdquo652

NASA announced that NASA scientists and other weather researchers had ldquogained intriguing new information about upper-level winds that drive hurricanes and about the stormsrsquo devastating impact as they collide with mountainsrdquo The research findings were the result of a seven-week study conducted by NASA the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and several

649 Aerospace Daily ldquoNRC Panel Worried NASA Hasnrsquot Studied Alternatives to LFBBrdquo 13 January 1999 650 Associated Press ldquoSaturn-Bound Spacecraft Develops Problem JPL Saysrdquo Los Angeles Times 14 January 1999 651 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoCunningham Cook Named to Mars Postsrdquo news release 99-03 13 January 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99marsapptshtml (accessed 23 January 2008) 652 PR Newswire ldquoMars Missions Earn Honors for Boeing Delta Employees NASArsquos Goldin and Congressman Rohrabacher Present Awardsrdquo 27 January 1999

181


universities during the previous summer as part of the Third Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX-3) The studyrsquos purpose was to gauge the strength of Atlantic hurricane winds and rainfall CAMEX-3 researchers had used data collected with special laser instruments aboard NASArsquos DC-8 aircraft which flew through hurricanes Bonnie Danielle Earl and Georges data collected from NASArsquos ER-2 high-altitude aircraft which flew above the hurricanes to collect ldquofirst-of its-kind datardquo and data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite Edward J Zipser of Texas AampM University remarked ldquothe multi-aircraft datasets obtained by NASA aircraft in these hurricanes are unprecedented in their comprehensivenessrdquo653

22 January After having agreed in June 1998 to abandon the space station within a year Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny M Primakov issued a decree to keep Mir in space for three more years using private funds so that Russia could dedicate its insufficient space budget to its ISS commitments The decree reportedly mentioned that Russian and foreign contractors and investors would develop a plan allowing Mir to remain in orbit without using ISS-allocated funds654

23 January Astronomers captured for the first time optical images of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) as it was occurring Detectors of the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on NASArsquos orbiting Compton Gamma Ray Observatory detected the GRB as it began and radioed its position to the Gamma Ray Burst Coordinates Network (GCN) at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) GSFC immediately forwarded the position to astronomers around the world In response to this signal the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) team in Los Alamos New Mexico photographed the patch of sky where the GRB was occurring Using precise information from instruments aboard the Italian-Dutch BeppoSAX satellite the ROTSE team was able to locate the GRB within the images they had captured Astronomer Scott D Barthelmy of GSFC remarked that capturing a burst as it unfolded was the ldquoholy grailrdquo of GCN and that previously optical telescopes had only seen the afterglow of a burst never the burst itself655

25 January NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin named Lori B Garver as Associate Administrator for NASArsquos Office of Policy and Plans effective immediately Garver had served as Acting Associate Administrator since September 1998 She had begun working for NASA in 1996 as Special Assistant to the Administrator Before joining NASA she had been Executive Director of the National Space Society since 1987 and a president of Women in Aerospace Goldin remarked that Garverrsquos experience inside and outside NASA had ldquoproven invaluablerdquo and that she had demonstrated the management skills and policy leadership that her new position required656

653 NASA ldquoNASA Hurricane Study Reveals Intriguing Resultsrdquo news release 99-4 15 January 1999 654 Peter N Spotts ldquoSaving Mir At What Cost to New Space Station Russians Decree That They Will Keep Aging Orbital Outpost Raises Questions in US About Their Ability To Fund International Projectrdquo Christian Science Monitor 25 January 1999 655 NASA ldquoGamma Ray Burst Imaged for the First Timerdquo news release 99-8 27 January 1999 656 NASA ldquoGarver Named Associate Administrator for Policy and Plansrdquo news release 99-6 25 January 1999

182


26 January NASA announced that it had selected from among 35 proposals five candidates for participation in its Medium-Class Explorer (MIDEX) program Each of the candidates received US$350000 to conduct a four-month implementation feasibility study NASA planned to study these proposals rigorously over the following five months before choosing the two MIDEX program participants The five proposals selected for further study were 1) the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer a three-telescope space observatory for studying the position brightness and physical properties of GRBs 2) the NGSS or Next Generation Sky Survey a four-channel supercooled infrared telescope designed to survey the entire sky with 1000 times more sensitivity than previous missions 3) FAME the Full-Sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer a space telescope designed to obtain highly precise position and brightness measurements of 40 million stars 4) the AMM or Auroral Multiscale MIDEX Mission a formation of four identically instrumented small satellites in a near-polar highly elliptical orbit and 5) ASCE Advanced Solar Coronal Explorer a powerful solar telescope which would reveal the physical processes in the Sun that lead to the solar wind and explosive coronal mass ejections NASA had also selected instruments from two proposed MIDEX missions for technology-development funding NASA awarded US$700000 each to Richard E Rothschild of the University of California at San Diego to develop an x-ray detector for studying black holes of all sizes and to Gary R Swenson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to develop detectors for studying waves in Earthrsquos upper atmosphere657

FEBRUARY 1999

2 February McDermott International Inc a worldwide energy services company announced the election to its board of directors of Kathryn D Sullivan President and CEO of the Ohio Center for Science and Industry since 1996 Before serving in that position Sullivan had been a chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and before that she had been an astronaut and mission specialist at NASA In 1978 NASA had selected Sullivan as a mission specialist for the first class of Space Shuttle astronauts In 1984 while serving on a mission aboard Space Shuttle Challenger she had become the first American woman to walk in space Sullivan had also flown aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) deployment mission in 1990 and aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis with the ATLAS-1 Spacelab flight in 1992658

4 February The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel established by Congress after the Apollo 1 spacecraft fire on 27 January 1967 submitted its annual report to NASA The panel found Shuttle safety satisfactory but cautioned that cutbacks such as hiring freezes and budgetary restrictions had created a ldquolooming crisisrdquo of future shortfalls in the workforce The panel warned that NASA was at risk of ldquolosing the core competencies needed to conduct the nationrsquos spaceflight and aerospace programs in a safe and effective mannerrdquo Budgetary constraints had also caused NASA to postpone planned improvements to the Shuttle fleet and the International Space Station (ISS) The panelrsquos chairperson remarked that both programs were operating at an ldquoacceptable

657 NASA ldquoFive Explorer Mission Proposals Picked for Feasibility Studiesrdquo news release 99-7 26 January 1999 658 Business Wire ldquoKathryn D Sullivan Elected to McDermott International Board of Directorsrdquo 2 February 1999

183


level of riskrdquo but that updating Shuttle computers and refurbishing the supply of spare parts would make the programs safer659

NASArsquos Mars Global Surveyor successfully completed the aerobraking phase of its mission raising its orbit completely out of the Martian atmosphere and preparing the craft to begin its primary mapping mission Glenn E Cunningham Deputy Director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) described the Mars spacecraftrsquos ldquopioneering operationrdquo of aerobraking as a long and arduous task which had become a valuable learning experience for all involvedmdashengineers and scientists alike The technique required the spacecraft to use frictional drag ldquoas it skim[med] through the planetrsquos thin atmosphererdquo altering the shape of the craftrsquos orbit and providing an innovative method to change the orbit using less on-board fuel NASA had first tested aerobraking in 1994 during the final days of the Magellan mission to Venus A structural problem with Mars Global Surveyorrsquos solar panel had delayed the final burn of aerobraking by approximately one year so that the flight team could ensure that the process would not overstress the weakened panel The extended aerobraking phase had enabled Global Surveyor to acquire bonus science data yielding ldquosome spectacular new findings about Marsrdquo such as a ldquoprofile of the planetrsquos northern polar cap and information about the unique nature of its remnant magnetic fieldsrdquo660

5 February An international team of scientists published findings based on research using data from NASArsquos Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft The team had sought to locate the origin of solar wind which interacts with Earthrsquos magnetic field creating auroral displays like the Northern Lights as well as disrupting satellites and communications equipment The SOHO team believed that the solar wind originated from honeycomb-shaped areas called convection cells located beneath the coronal holes Using data from the spectrometer the scientists had measured for the first time the structure and motion of gases inside the coronal holes The team reported that in some places above coronal holes magnetic field lines do not loop back to the Sunrsquos surface but rather the magnetic lines shoot upward without returning to the Sun thereby originating the solar wind661

The Russian Space Agencyrsquos ldquospace mirrorrdquo failed to unfurl properly at the Mir space station and Russia officially terminated the experiment Crew attached the mirror to a cargo spacecraft filled with trash sending it to burn up in Earthrsquos atmosphere Engineers had intended the 83-foot (25-meter) mirror to ldquowork like an artificial [M]oonrdquo acting as a prototype for larger mirrors that ldquocould illuminate [S]un-starved northern cities through the long Arctic nights and spotlight disaster areasrdquo The experimentrsquos failure was a ldquobig disappointmentrdquo for the Russian Space Agency which had hoped to display ldquoits ability to conduct pioneering ambitious projects despite a lack of fundsrdquo662

659 NASA ldquoAerospace Safety Advisory Panel To Present Report to NASArdquo news release N99-8 4 February 1999 Marcia Dunn for the Associated Press ldquoSpace Safetyrdquo 5 February 1999 660 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoMars Global Surveyor Successfully Completes Aerobrakingrdquo news release 99-06 4 February 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99mgsbrakehtml (accessed 23 January 2008) 661 Donald Hassler et al ldquoSolar Wind Outflow and the Chromospheric Magnetic Networkrdquo Science 283 no 5403 (5 February 1999) 810 United Press International ldquoSource of Solar Wind Believed Foundrdquo 4 February 662 Vladimir Isachenkov for the Associated Press ldquoRussia-Space Mirrorrdquo 5 February 1999

184


7 February After a one-day delay a Delta II rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Florida carrying the US$128 million Stardust spacecraft Stardust launched on a mission described as NASArsquos first attempt to ldquoreturn to Earth solid extraterrestrial material from beyond our [M]oonrsquos orbitrdquo Astronomers expected that after traveling for about five years the craft would rendezvous with a medium-sized comet A device aboard the Stardust would collect tiny particles from the comet before returning to Earth on 15 January 2006663

8 February NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin named Kevin L Petersen who had been serving in an acting capacity since August 1998 as Director of NASArsquos Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) in Edwards California Petersen had joined Dryden as an aerospace engineer in 1974 and had worked on flight-research projects including the F-8 Digital Fly-by-Wire the HiMAT (the Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology) and the X-29 forward-swept wing projects He had served as Chief of the Vehicle Technology Branch Chief of the National Aerospace Plane Projects Office and since January 1996 as DFRCrsquos Deputy Director664

NASA released findings from its Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraftrsquos flyby of asteroid 433 known as Eros The flyby had occurred on 23 December 1998 The NEAR spacecraftrsquos instruments had collected data revealing that the asteroid was slightly smaller than previously thought with at least two medium-sized craters and a density comparable to that of the Earthrsquos crust665

9 February An Israeli court indicted Israeli teenager Ehud Tenenbaum and four accomplices⎯Guy Fleisher Ariel Rosenfeld Barak Abutbul and Rafael Ohana⎯for illegal entry of computers in the United States and Israel The group allegedly hacked into the computer systems of the Pentagon and NASA as well as those of academic institutions in Israel and Israelrsquos Knesset666

NASA released images taken with cameras aboard the HST revealing the infancy of planets NASA described the images as a ldquoglimpse of what our solar system looked like 45 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets began to condenserdquo The images did not show actual planets but rather the discs of dust that surround young stars The HST images of six young stars located 450 light-years away in the constellation Taurus showed important details never before revealed in infrared or radio observations such as the size shape thickness and orientation of the discs667

NASA announced the selection of Italian astronaut Umberto Guidoni to fly aboard Shuttle Mission STS-102 Guidoni was the first astronaut named to Mission STS-102 and the first European astronaut selected for an ISS mission The primary purpose of STS-102 would be to

663 Michael Cabbage ldquoStardust Is Launched To Sweep Comet Debrisrdquo New Orleans Times-Picayune 8 February 1999 664 NASA ldquoPetersen Named Dryden Directorrdquo news release 99-14 8 February 1999 665 NASA ldquoNEAR Spacecraft Reveals Major Features of Erosrdquo news release 99-13 8 February 1999 666 Chicago Tribune ldquo5 Are Indicted for Hacking in the USrdquo 10 February 1999 667 Associated Press ldquoHubble May Have Early Planet Imagesrdquo 10 February 1999

185


deliver a 21-by-15-foot (64-by-46-meter) multipurpose logistics module named Leonardo to the ISS The Italian Space Agency and NASA had constructed Leonardo under a bilateral agreement that included a flight opportunity for an Italian astronaut Before his assignment on STS-102 Guidoni had flown in 1996 as a payload specialist aboard Mission STS-75 That 16shyday mission had included working with the U S Microgravity Payload and testing the NASA-Italian Space Agency Tethered Satellite System668

11 February NASA announced its selection of a team of industry partners to develop a ldquohighway in the sky systemrdquo allowing the average person to travel in small easy-to-fly personal aircraft at four times the speed of a car NASA selected Avidyne Corporation of Lexington Massachusetts AvroTec Inc of Portland Oregon Lancair of Redmond Oregon Raytheon Aircraft of Wichita Kansas Rockwell Collins of Cedar Rapids Iowa Seagull Technologies of Los Gatos California and Allied Signal of Olathe Kansas as the industry partners NASA tasked the team with completing hardware and software development of an entirely new concept for a cockpit display system intended to guide the pilot to a preprogrammed destination669

12 February NASA officials announced that the Galileo spacecraft was operating normally again after entering safe mode on 31 January Galileorsquos computer had become confused while flying past Jupiterrsquos moon Europa David A Senske a member of the Galileo imaging team at NASArsquos JPL explained that the unusual angle Galileo required for studying Europa had caused the computer to malfunction670

18 February Scientists studying images obtained by NASArsquos Mars Global Surveyor published two reports in the journal Nature about Martian volcanic activity One study reported that the images contained evidence that ldquoten times more lavardquo than previously thought had erupted onto Marsrsquos surface The other study suggested that at least one of Marsrsquos volcanoes was still active671

20 February Soyuz TM-29 launched on a mission to Mir with Russian cosmonauts Viktor M Afanasyev and Ivan Bella Jean-Pierre Haignereacute of the European Space Agency was also on board Soyuz672

23 February

668 NASA ldquoGuidoni To Accompany First Italian Space Station Element to Orbitrdquo news release 99-18 11 February 1999 Reuters ldquoItalian Astronaut To Take Part in Discovery Missionrdquo 9 February 1999 669 NASA ldquoGeneral Aviation To Get a NASA-Industry lsquoLiftrsquordquo news release 99-17 11 February 1999 670 Associated Press ldquoGalileo Craft Resumes Its Jupiter Missionrdquo 13 February 1999 671 William Hartmann et al ldquoEvidence for Recent Volcanism on Mars from Crater Countsrdquo Nature 397 no 6720 (18 February 1999) 586 Alfred S McEwen et al ldquoVoluminous Volcanism on Early Mars Revealed in Valles Marinerisrdquo Nature 397 no 6720 (18 February 1999) 584 Rick Callahan ldquoMars Was Truly Red Planet⎯as in Red-Hot Molten Lava⎯Scientists Say One Volcano Would Have Coated US 4 Miles Deeprdquo Seattle Times (WA) 17 February 1999 672 NASA ldquoUS and Russian Human Space Flight 1961⎯September 30 2000rdquo in Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 2000 Activities (Washington DC 2001)

186


Boeing launched a Delta II rocket from Californiarsquos Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying the first science satellites from Denmark and South Africa and the US Air Forcersquos Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS) The Air Force intended the Boeing-built ARGOS to spend three years in space ldquocollecting data on the Earthrsquos global environment and performing technology demonstrations for top-priority military space programsrdquo as well as testing advanced space technologies for use on the ISS The launches of Denmarkrsquos Orsted and South Africarsquos SUNSAT (Stellenbosch University South Africa satellite) were critical milestones for both countriesrsquo space programs SUNSAT carried remote-sensing experiments to produce images from space at lower cost than larger systems and Denmark deployed Orsted to study Earthrsquos magnetic fields and electrical properties673

25 February The Russian Space Agency signed a cooperative agreement with Russian arms exporter Rosvooruzheniye ldquointended to raise Russiarsquos earnings on the world market and help it develop space hardwarerdquo Russia had earned only US$800 million compared to the United Statesrsquo US$50 billion in commercial satellite launches during 1998 Rosvooruzheniye hoped the deal would help Russia break into the international space markets674

26 February A European Ariane 4 rocket launched carrying two communication satellites from French Guiana The rocket placed into orbit an Arabsat 3A satellite providing television broadcasting and telephone communications to the Middle East North Africa and Southern Europe as well as the Skynet 4E satellite a British armed forces strategic and tactical communications satellite Both craft would move into geostationary orbits675

MARCH 1999

1 March NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin officially announced the change of the name of Lewis Research Center in Cleveland Ohio to ldquoJohn H Glenn Research Center at Lewis Fieldrdquo George W Lewis had been the research director for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) NASArsquos predecessor agency which built the research facility in 1941 Shortly after Lewisrsquos death in 1948 NACA had named the facility ldquoLewis Flight Propulsion Laboratoryrdquo to commemorate him NASA had modified its name to ldquoLewis Research Centerrdquo in 1958 when the facility became part of the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration US Senator R Michael DeWine (R-OH) had proposed the most recent name change for the facility in the FY 1999 appropriations bill for the Departments of Veterans Affairs Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies Congress had enacted the bill into law on 21 October 1998 (Pub L No 105-276) Goldin remarked that naming the Center for both George W Lewis and John H Glenn Jr was an appropriate tribute to ldquotwo of Ohiorsquos famous names⎯one an aeronautic researcher and the other an astronaut legend and lawmakerrdquo676

673 CNNcom ldquoRocket Carries Trio of Science Satellites into Orbitrdquo 23 February 1999 httpwwwcnncomTECH space990223argoslaunchindexhtml (accessed 10 April 2008) 674 CNNcom ldquoRussiarsquos Space Agency Arms Exporter Sign Cooperation Dealrdquo 25 February 1999 675 BBC News ldquoAriane Blasts Off Successfullyrdquo 27 February 1999 676 NASA ldquoNASA Announces Field Center Name Changerdquo news release 99-29 1 March 1999

187


3 March Medialink Worldwide Inc a New Yorkndashbased company specializing in audio-video production and satellite-distribution services announced it had signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to help the agency broadcast its news worldwide via television The two-year contract required Medialink to ldquoestablish and improve the space organizationrsquos relations with broadcast media across Europerdquo as well as to produce video news releases and other products ldquointended to raise the profile of the multinational agencyrdquo677

4 March The Federal Laboratory Consortium appointed Donald J Campbell Director of Glenn Research Center (GRC) as the 1998 Laboratory Director of the Year for Technology Transfer The Consortium honored Campbell NASArsquos first African American center director for his ldquoexemplary contributions to the overall enhancement of technology transfer for economic developmentrdquo Industries had created at least 20 new products from GRC-developed technologies in the previous five years Campbell had also led the Center in establishing the Lewis Incubator for Technology to help entrepreneurs and start-up companies commercialize NASA-developed technologies as well as the Garrett Morgan Commercialization Initiative to help small businesses in Ohio and the Great Lakes region use NASA technologies to become more competitive678

NASA launched its Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) aboard the three-stage Pegasus-XL rocket Orbital Sciences Corporationrsquos L-1011 jet carried the rocket to an altitude of 40000 feet (12200 meters) before releasing it Shortly after WIRErsquos release into orbit it encountered difficulties maintaining its stability and NASA immediately began to investigate the malfunction The satellitersquos scientific instrument was a ldquocryogenically cooled telescope designed to shed light on the history of star formation in the universerdquo as part of NASArsquos Origins program The 125-inch-aperture (318-centimeter-aperture) telescope aboard WIRE had no moving parts and was enclosed in a cooling system to keep its mirrors below -436degF (-260degC) to prevent its own heat emission from overwhelming the light it would detect from space679

5 March The NASA WIRE team declared a spacecraft emergency as ground controllers worked to recover the spacecraft The satellite continued to spin instead of maintaining a stable position in orbit and had a higher temperature than expected NASA formed a spacecraft-recovery team headed by David F Everett of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) as well as an anomaly-investigation board680

8 March

677 Medialink Worldwide Inc ldquoEuropean Space Agency Names Medialink for TV Contractrdquo news release 3 March 1999 678 NASA ldquoCampbell Named Laboratory Director of the Yearrdquo news release 99-32 4 March 1999 679 Associated Press ldquoNASArsquos Star-Gazing Wire Satellite Successfully Launchedrdquo 4 March 1999 Associated Press ldquoSatellite Launchrdquo 5 March 1999 680 NASA ldquoNASA Working To Correct Spin Rate of Wire Spacecraftrdquo news release 99-34 5 March 1999

188


NASA announced the end of the scientific mission of its WIRE satellite after the craft released into space its entire supply of frozen hydrogen a critical element of the mission Preliminary reports indicated that the satellite had released the primary telescope cover three days earlier than planned exposing the telescopersquos cryostat to sunlight The sunlight had warmed the frozen hydrogen in the cryostat which was supposed to maintain the telescopersquos temperature causing the hydrogen to vent into space at a much higher rate than planned Ground controllers believed the fast venting of the hydrogen had caused the satellite to spin but they did not yet know what had caused the release of the telescope cover681

9 March At a briefing at NASA Headquarters scientists explained how sigmoids⎯fiery S-shapes on the Sunrsquos surface⎯would help them ldquopredict when potentially dangerous and disruptive blasts of electrically charged gas will come hurtling toward Earthrdquo These solar explosions or coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have the power to disable power grids damage satellites and scramble communications networks Previously scientists could detect solar explosions once they had occurred providing two or three days for Earth to prepare for potential problems but they were unable to predict the CMEs With the Japanese Yohkoh spacecraftrsquos discovery of sigmoids scientists would be able to issue a warning five or six days in advance of a solar explosion Sarah E Gibson of Cambridge University in England described the sigmoids as slinky-like structures related to the Sunrsquos underlying magnetic field Alphonse Sterling of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan likened the structures to ldquoloaded gunsrdquo with a high probability of discharging Scientists explained further that ldquonot every CME is presaged by a sigmoid but most sigmoids signal very large CMEsrdquo The Yohkoh images showed that the sigmoidrsquos S-shape is the precursor to a CME confirmed by the appearance of an arch shape following the blast682

Joseph G Beerer of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory stated that all of the instruments aboard Mars Global Surveyor were operating and that the craft had begun mapping Mars approximately one year later than originally planned NASA had launched the craft in November 1996 and Surveyor had entered orbit around Mars in September 1997 NASA had delayed the mapping portion of the mission when scientists detected a structural problem with one of the craftrsquos solar panels To avoid placing excessive stress on the panel the flight team had opted to proceed cautiously in aerobraking Aerobraking a pioneering operation was necessary to position the spacecraft for its Mars mapping mission683

12 March NASA selected winners of its Government Inventor of the Year and Commercial Invention of the Year awards Charles E Clagett Associate Head of the Component and Hardware Systems Branch at GSFC won the Government Inventor of the Year Award for his Apparatus for Providing Torque and for Storing Momentum Energy Clagett had developed the apparatus known more commonly as the SMEX ReactionMomentum Wheel for NASArsquos Small Explorer program NASA had used the apparatus successfully in the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer and the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite Paul M Hergenrother Joseph G

681 NASA ldquoWire Spacecraft Instrument Runs Out of Hydrogenrdquo news release 99-37 8 March 1999 682 Deborah Zabarenko for Reuters ldquoSunrsquos Fiery S-Shapes Foretell Massive Solar Blastsrdquo 9 March 1999 683 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoMars Global Surveyor Successfully Completes Aerobrakingrdquo news release 99-006 4 February 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99mgsbrakehtml (accessed 27 December 2007)

189


Smith Jr and Brian J Jensen of Langley Research Center won the Commercial Inventor of the Year Award for their Phenylethynyl Terminated Imide Oligomers fifth composition known as PETI-5 which is a type of glue that holds fibers together The Langley team had developed PETI-5 as an adhesive for use in various aerospace and commercial applications Used in high-speed high-temperature aircraft PETI-5 had netted US$10 million in sales since becoming commercially available684

15 March After assessing its safety aspects officials from the Federal Aviation Administrationrsquos (FAArsquos) commercial space office approved the first space launch from a platform in the sea The FAA issued the launch license to an international launch consortium known as Sea Launch The Boeing Company based in the United States was a 40 percent partner in the consortium The Sea Launch Company planned a demonstration launch for 27 March 1999 from a converted self-propelled oil-drilling platform in the Pacific Ocean The consortiumrsquos initiative to launch communications satellites from a mid-ocean location at the equator offered several advantages such as the capability to lift heavier-than-normal payloads685

26 March Lockheed Martin and its Russian business partners announced the appointment of Wilbur C Trafton as President of International Launch Services (ILS) Trafton had been Acting President since the previous December Lockheed Martin Russiarsquos Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia had established ILS in 1995 as a joint venture to market commercial launch services on Russian Proton rockets and Lockheed Martin Atlas rockets Before joining ILS Trafton had been Associate Administrator for NASArsquos Office of Space Flight In that position he had headed NASArsquos Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise Ray Colloday President of Lockheed Martin Astronautics remarked that Trafton had brought to ILS ldquoyears of experience working on joint space programs with Russiardquo Colladay said that Traftonrsquos background together with his knowledge of the Atlas product line made him ldquoparticularly well suited to lead ILSrdquo686

Researchers reported in the journal Science that NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft had detected hydrogen peroxide on Jupiterrsquos moon Europa Hydrogen peroxide does not occur naturally on Earth A scientific instrument aboard the craft⎯the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS)⎯had aided scientists in their study of Europarsquos surface Working like a prism the instrument had broken up infrared light detecting dark areas of hydrogen peroxide The scientists reported that the chemical was forming constantly on Europa through the process of radiolysis in this case the process involved ldquointense particle radiationrdquo emanating from Jupiter Principal Investigator for NIMS Robert W Carlson explained that hydrogen peroxide begins breaking down almost as soon as it forms and therefore its life on Europa spans no more than a

684 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Top Inventions of the Yearrdquo news release 99-42 12 March 1999 685 Federal Aviation Administration ldquoFAA Issues Launch License to First International Sea Launch Consortiumrdquo news release APA 34-99 15 March 1999 httpwwwfaagovnewspress_releasesnews_storycfmnewsId= 4952 (accessed 27 December 2007) Associated Press ldquoFAA Gives Its OK to 1st Spacecraft Launched from Seardquo Salt Lake Tribune (UT) 16 March 1999 686 Lockheed Martin ldquoWilbur Trafton Named President International Launch Servicesrdquo news release 26 March 1999rdquo httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases1999WilburTraftonNamedPresident Internathtml (accessed 21 December 2007)

190


few months The short lifespan of the chemical limited the scientistsrsquo ability to study the long-term chemical history of Europa However scientists would be able to apply their observations of short-term chemical changes on Jupiter to the study of how the moons of Jupiter interact with the planet as well as to the study of similar processes elsewhere in the solar system687

29 March A dummy satellite reached its orbit 23000 miles (37000 kilometers) above Earth signaling an important success for the Sea Launch Company The international consortium which had invested US$500 million to develop the first commercial marine-based launch system launched the dummy satellite from the Odyssey a converted oil rig located 1400 miles (2300 kilometers) south of Hawaii A Zenit-3SL rocket built jointly by Ukraine and Russia carried the satellite aloft One hour after launch the satellite separated from the third stage of the rocket at an altitude of 1200 miles (1900 kilometers) to continue to its ultimate position688

31 March The ESA signed a 60 million Euro contract with Matra Marconi Space to design and build the Mars Express spacecraft with a planned launch date of June 2003 The agency chose that target date because the planets would be in optimal alignment allowing for minimum travel time to Mars with maximum payload capacity Major space missions can require upwards of 11 years from concept to launch and only six years remained before the 2003 date so the ESA selected a contractor with the means to develop missions quickly and inexpensively Matra Marconi demonstrated that it would be able to streamline the development of Mars Express building and launching the mission for about half the budget required for similar efforts689

APRIL 1999

5 April Advanced Communication Systems Inc announced that the Naval Air Systems Command had awarded its Aerospace Division a five-year contract with option years The Naval Air Systems Command intended the US$46 million Aircraft Structural Life Surveillance contract to assist the US Navy in developing verifying executing and enhancing methods and processes for monitoring aircraft structural fatigue Advanced Communicationrsquos Aerospace Division Vice President Thomas M Brennan remarked that the contract covered air vehicle technology that would ldquohave application across all military services as well as NASA and the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration]rdquo690

6 April NASA appointed Space Shuttle Program Manager Thomas W Holloway as Manager of the International Space Station (ISS) Program effective 19 April Holloway replaced Randolph H

687 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoNASArsquos Galileo Finds lsquoBottle Blondersquo Chemical on Europardquo news release 99-022 25 March 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99europaperoxidehtml (accessed 21 December 2007) R W Carlson et al ldquoHydrogen Peroxide on the Surface of Europardquo Science 283 no 5410 (26 March 1999) 2062ndash 2064 688 Associated Press ldquoSatellite Reaches Orbit After First Commercial Launch from Oceanrdquo 30 March 1999 689 European Space Agency ldquoMission to Mars Set To Revolutionize ESArsquos Working Methodsrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 31 March 1999 690 PR Newswire ldquoACS Wins $46 Million Aircraft Structures Contractrdquo 5 April 1999

191


Brinkley who departed NASA for the private sector NASA named Ronald D Dittemore to replace Holloway as Manager of the Space Shuttle Program Holloway had begun his NASA career in 1963 working in the Mission Control Center where he planned activities for Gemini and Apollo flights He had served as a flight director in Mission Control early in the Space Shuttle Program becoming Chief of the Flight Director Office in 1985 In the 1990s he had served as Deputy Manager for Program Integration with the Space Shuttle Program followed by an appointment as Director of the Phase I Program of ShuttlendashMir dockings Holloway had begun managing the Space Shuttle Program in 1995691

8 April NASA announced the departure of Gretchen W McClain a senior space station official at NASA Headquarters naming as her replacement in an acting capacity W Michael Hawes NASArsquos Chief Engineer for the ISS In 1997 NASA had appointed McClain as Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Development (Space Station) In that position she was responsible for directing the space station budget establishing and implementing station policy coordinating external communications and undertaking liaison activities with the executive branch Congress industry and international partners McClain left NASA to return to private industry692

10 April US Air Force officials announced that despite initial media reports of a successful launch the previous dayrsquos launch of the USA 142 aboard a Titan IVB rocket had failed The USA 142 also called the DSP 19 an American geosynchronous military satellite had launched from Cape Canaveral Florida The failed launch had placed the Defense Support Program satellite in a useless orbit after an attached rocket engine failed This was the first launch attempt since the explosion of a Titan IVA in August 1998 Engineers had designed the Titan IVB an improved version of the Titan IV to survive the electrical malfunction that had led to its predecessorrsquos demise Because of a policy of secrecy concerning military spy satellites the US Air Force had delayed informing its public affairs office about the launch failure Although senior Air Force officials knew of the loss of the satellite they were unable to make the event public until they were certain that the failure had not entailed the release of classified information The Air Force had designed the satellite a highly sensitive 2-ton (1800-kilogram or 18-tonne) infrared telescope to detect missile launches and nuclear detonations693

12 April Celebrating the anniversary of the flight of Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961 Russian President Boris N Yeltsin presented state medals to several dozen cosmonauts and space officials during a Cosmonautrsquos Day ceremony Yeltsin briefly praised Mirrsquos achievements in his remarks at the Kremlin but when Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev presented him with a model of the new ISS Yeltsin asked Koptev whether Mir would stay aloft Koptev

691 NASA Johnson Space Center ldquoHolloway Named Space Station Manager Dittemore To Head Shuttle Brinkley Leaves NASA for Private Sectorrdquo news release J99-9 6 April 1999 httpwwwnasagovcentersjohnsonnews releases1999_2001j99-9html (accessed 15 January 2008) 692 NASA ldquoMcClain To Leave NASA Hawes Named Acting Chief of Space Stationrdquo news release 99-50 8 April 1999 693 Robyn Suriano ldquoAir Force Says Security Questions Delayed Announcementrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 13 April 1999 Spacewarn Bulletin no 546 1 May 1999 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx546html (accessed 28 October 2008)

192


responded in the affirmative but explained during a press conference afterward that private investors had not yet produced funds for Mirrsquos continued operation Vitaly I Sevastyanov a lawmaker and former cosmonaut called on Russians to contribute money to a charity formed to keep Mir in orbit694

13 April NASA announced the discovery of a ldquomysterious class of lsquomiddleweightrsquo black holesrdquo Two teams of astronomers studying x-ray light at NASA and Carnegie Mellon University had independently found evidence of this new class of black hole Astronomers did not know what process had formed the newly discovered black holes 100 to 10000 times as massive as the Sun and located in spiral-shaped galaxies throughout the universe Before this discovery astronomers had known of only two types of black holes 1) stellar black holes formed from the ldquoremains of dead stars several times heavier than the Sunrdquo and compressed to a ldquodiameter of a few miles or lessrdquo and 2) supermassive black holes which have masses equal to 1 million to 1 billion Suns and likely formed in the ldquoearly universe from giant gas clouds or from the collapse of clusters of immense numbers of starsrdquo Edward H Colbert and Richard F Mushotzky of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) had observed hints of the black holes while studying x-rays from 39 nearby galaxies Andrew Ptak and Richard Griffiths of Carnegie Mellon University had studied x-ray light in galaxy M82 which was not one of the set of galaxies that the Goddard team had studied Both teams had identified unique x-ray light indicative of a class of black holes that was neither stellar nor supermassive695

15 April Landsat-7 launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base Although Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space had built Landsat-7 the newest land-surface observation satellite with a design life of five years the companyrsquos spokesperson remarked that 15 years after its 1984 launch Landsat-5 continued in operation The upper stage of the rocket that launched the commercially built Landsat-6 in October 1993 had failed to fire the satellite into orbit destroying the craft and prompting NASA and the US Geological Survey to resume control of the Landsat program in 1994 The latest model in the satellite series carried ldquoa new generation of remote-sensing devices far more sophisticated than the equipment on satellites mapping Earth over the past decaderdquo Raytheon Remote Sensing of Santa Barbara California had built the craftrsquos enhanced thematic mapper to measure solar radiation reflected off the Earthrsquos surface The device was capable of capturing images of Earthrsquos surface in 114-mile-wide (183-kilometershywide) swaths and could resolve images as small as 50 feet (15 meters) across696

16 April Mir Commander Viktor M Afanasyev and French cosmonaut Jean-Pierre Haignereacute replaced scientific equipment on Mirrsquos exterior during a planned 5-hour spacewalk that went overtime The pair overcame ldquonumerous technical blipsrdquo to complete the French portion of the tasks and most of the Russian portion Malfunctions in their spacesuitsrsquo ventilation systems delayed both men in leaving the station Other problems included equipment failure during a simulated repair to an imaginary hole on Mirrsquos superstructure an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve data from a

694 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 12 April 1999 695 NASA ldquoAstronomers Discover lsquoMiddleweightrsquo Black Holesrdquo news release 99-51 13 April 1999 696 Frank Sweeney ldquoNew Earth Camera Launched into Orbitrdquo San Jose Mercury News (CA) 20 April 1999

193


pollution study in process around the station and the failure to install a new Russian-sponsored experiment to measure cosmic rays Cosmonauts succeeded in other tasks during the spacewalk including the recuperation of a French-sponsored test and the installation on the stationrsquos hull of comet technology designed to gather space dust for analysis Haignereacute was on his second mission to Mir but this was his first spacewalk697

22 April At the 14th Annual NASA Continual Improvement and Reinvention Conference on Quality Management Administrator Daniel S Goldin presented the George M Low Award NASArsquos highest honor for quality and technical performance to four US companies 1) Barrios Technology Inc of Houston Texas for its small-business product 2) Kay and Associates of Edwards California for small-business service 3) Raytheon Support Services Company of Annapolis Junction Maryland for the large-business service category and 4) Thiokol Space Operations of Brigham City Utah for the large-business product category NASA had evaluated the recipients for performance delivery according to agreed cost and schedule innovation management leadership alignment of organizational goals with NASArsquos strategic plans customer orientation and adherence to the Total Quality Management philosophy Thiokol Corporation which had won the Low Award in 1991 and Marshall Space Flight Centerrsquos Contractor Excellence Award in March 1999 had manufactured the reusable solid rocket motor for the Space Shuttle as well as providing launch support and refurbishment services for the motor Over the past seven years Thiokol had never delayed its delivery of hardware Its cost reduction efforts had saved NASA US$152 million698

23 April Scientists Peter Smith of the University of Arizona and Justin Maki of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory published a report in the Journal of Geophysical Research summarizing the results of the Mars Pathfinder Mission After an exhaustive review of more than 17000 images from the Pathfinderrsquos 1997 mission the report had concluded that Marsrsquos air and dirt are yellowish-brown in color not red Viking probes of the 1970s had likewise indicated that Mars is not red but rather yellowish-brown However Mars appears red to the naked eye from Earth and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data had indicated that Mars is red The scientists reported that the detailed analysis using Pathfinder data had revealed that the HST not Pathfinder needed to be recalibrated699

27 April Lockheed Martin launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base an Athena II rocket carrying the Ikonos I satellite a civilian satellite capable of capturing the detailed images that only spy satellites could produce in the past Launch officials had planned to cease communications with the craft 8 minutes after liftoff and to reestablish contact later in the flight but had not been able to reestablish contact once initial communications ended Officials were unable to determine

697 Agence France-Presse ldquoCosmonauts Struggle Through Grueling Space Walk Programrdquo 19 April 1999 698 NASA ldquoFour Aerospace Firms Win NASArsquos Highest Honor for Qualityrdquo news release 99-53 22 April 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-053txt (accessed 7 February 2008) Cordant Technologies Inc ldquoThiokol Propulsion Wins NASArsquos Highest Honor for Qualityrdquo news release 3 May 1999 699 Salt Lake Tribune (UT) ldquoThe Red Planet Mars Is Really Yellowing Brown Pathfinder Discovers What Hubble Missedrdquo 24 April 1999

194


whether the craft had remained in orbit Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems had built the satellite Raytheon had built the communications image processing and other elements of the system and Eastman Kodak had built the digital camera system The camera on board Ikonos I was capable of resolving objects as small as 1 square meter (11 square feet) enabling the satellite to distinguish between a car and a truck Before the manufacture of Ikonos only military satellites had possessed the ability to photograph Earth in such detail700

28 April NASA announced it had completed negotiations on a US$6256 million contract with Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems to purchase the last set of materials required to build 60 new Space Shuttle external fuel tanks Although it was the sixth and last in a series of purchases of fuel tanks this was the first purchase NASA had made consisting entirely of super lightweight tanks The tankrsquos design was the same as that of the lightweight tank design NASA had previously used but the new tanks were 7500 pounds (3400 kilograms) lighter and used a new aluminum lithium alloy NASA and industry partners had developed the lighter alloy 30 percent stronger than the material used to manufacture the lightweight tank to enable the Shuttle to deliver ISS components into the proper orbit701

29 April NASA announced that the magnetometer on board Mars Global Surveyor had revealed ldquobanded patterns of magnetic fields on the Martian surfacerdquo bearing a ldquostriking similarity to patterns seen in the crust of the Earthrsquos sea floorsrdquo Scientists interpreted the patterns as evidence that the Martian crust had shifted in the past The discovery of banded patterns on the floor of Earthrsquos oceans had provided a record of Earthrsquos magnetic history validating the theory of plate tectonics Jack Connerney of NASArsquos GSFC a member of Global Surveyorrsquos magnetometer team explained ldquoif the bands on Mars are an imprint of crustal spreading they are a relic of an early era of plate tectonics on Marsrdquo He added that such tectonic activity on Mars is likely extinct unlike on Earth The spacecraftrsquos magnetometer had been able to capture the magnetic field observations because of the extended aerobraking phase devised to protect against further damage to one of the spacecraftrsquos solar panels The period of aerobraking had permitted the magnetometer to ldquoobtain better-than-planned regional measurements of Marsrdquo Each time it reached the lowest point of its elliptically shaped orbit below the planetrsquos ionosphere the probe encountered minimal magnetic interference and enabling it to obtain additional data702

30 April In its third consecutive failure the second loss within one month the US Air Force launch of a Titan IV rocket from Cape Canaveral Florida placed a geosynchronous military communications satellite the USA 143 also known as Milstar 2 in a useless low-Earth orbit 703

700 John Antczak for Associated Press ldquoContact Fails During Flight Civilian Satellite Lost After Launchrdquo 29 April 1999 701 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center ldquoNASA Completes Purchase of Material for 60 Shuttle External Tanksrdquo news releases 99-069 28 April 1999 httpwwwmsfcnasagovnewsnewsreleases199999-069html (accessed 5 February 2008) 702 NASA ldquoMagnetic Stripes Preserve Record of Ancient Marsrdquo news release 99-56 29 April 1999

195


MAY 1999

1 May After a search of nearly two weeks a team of salvagers funded by the Discovery Channel located the Liberty Bell 7 the Mercury space capsule flown by astronaut Virgil I ldquoGusrdquo Grissom which had been lost at sea on 21 July 1961 Grissom had survived the splashdown and had been rescued from the Atlantic Ocean He had maintained until his death in the 1967 Apollo I launchpad fire that he had done nothing that could have caused the hatch to blow out following the splashdown The cause of the accident remained a mystery and ldquoforever marredrdquo Grissomrsquos otherwise successful 15-minute suborbital flight the nationrsquos second piloted spaceflight The salvagersrsquo remotely operated submersible had located and recorded video of the capsule about 300 miles (480 kilometers) southeast of Cape Canaveral Florida 3 miles (48 kilometers) beneath the surface of the ocean Expedition leader Curt Newport said the video showed that the capsule was in ldquoamazingly good conditionrdquo It was ldquostill shiny in spotsrdquo the window and parachute liner were intact its periscope was extended and the words ldquoUnited Statesrdquo and ldquoLiberty Bellrdquo were ldquoplainly visiblerdquo Newport explained the difficulty of locating the capsule comparing the attempt to find it to searching for the Titanic⎯the Liberty Bellrsquos capsule smaller than one of the Titanicrsquos boilers was hidden in water 05 miles (08 kilometers) deeper than the doomed ocean liner Although the submersible located two cameras and a tape recorder with the capsule which might possibly help to explain why the hatch blew open prematurely it was doubtful that the film from those items would be salvageable after 38 years underwater Although the discovery of the hatch itself would more likely provide an answer Newport estimated that the hatch could be a mile from the capsule The capsule remained in the ocean for recovery at a later unspecified date704

4 May A Boeing Delta III rocket carrying an Orion satellite for Loral Space and Communications malfunctioned shortly after launch leaving the satellite in the wrong orbit In the inaugural launch in August 1998 of a Boeing Delta III a rocket designed to carry twice the payload of the Delta II the rocket had exploded in midair In this second attempt at flight the rocket had survived the initial launch but malfunctioned when the second stage failed to ignite properly leaving Orion in an orbit lower than planned Engineers were uncertain whether it would be possible to boost the satellite using on-board fuel and thrusters705

Lockheed Martin Corporation named former Martin Marietta President and Chief Operating Officer A Thomas Young to lead an independent review of the management engineering manufacturing and quality control processes of its space and missile business specifically Astronautics Missiles and Space and Michoud Space Systems The company had experienced a ldquoseries of expensive and well-publicized failures of its rockets and satellitesrdquo including two in the previous week when a Titan IV placed one military satellite in the wrong orbit and when

703 Associated Press ldquoAir Force Declares Military Satellite Deadrdquo 12 May 1999 Spacewarn Bulletin no 546 1 May 1999 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx546html (accessed 28 October 2008) 704 Washington Times ldquoSalvagers Able To Locate Grissomrsquos Space Capsulerdquo 3 May 1999 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoSunken Spacecraftrdquo 3 May 1999 705 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoNew Boeing Rocket Malfunctions Satellite Enters Wrong Orbitrdquo 5 May 1999

196


another satellite the remote-sensing Ikonos lost contact with the ground The company instructed the panel to submit a report to senior Lockheed management by 1 September706

The US Air Force officially declared the US$12 billion launch of a communications satellite on 30 April a ldquomission failurerdquo A malfunction in the upper stage booster of the Titan IVB rocket had stranded the Milstar satellite in the wrong orbit The Air Force established an investigation into the failure which was its ldquothird costly space failure in nine monthsrdquo707

11 May Following a series of launch failures Lockheed Martin Corporation announced management changes in three of its business sectors Raymond S Colloday President of Lockheed Martin Astronautics retired effective immediately and G Thomas Marsh Executive Vice President of Missiles and Space succeeded him Lockheed named the President of Missiles and Space K Michael Henshaw as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Energy and Environment Sector effective 1 June In that position Henshaw succeeded Robert J Stevens who had served in dual positions but was directed to ldquodevote his full attentionrdquo to his role as Corporate Vice President of Strategic Development Albert E Smith President of Aerospace Electronics Systems and of Sanders a Lockheed Martin company in Nashua New Hampshire succeeded Henshaw as President of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space of Sunnyvale California Lockheed named Walter P Havenstein President of Sanders and Acting President of Aerospace Electronics System a promotion from his former position as Executive Vice President In addition to the recent launch failures Lockheed had been ldquobedeviledrdquo by problems in its space business including a 10 percent reduction in sales in its Space and Strategic Missiles Sector and a 17 percent decline in operating profit after inadequate preparation and cancellations had caused the delay of commercial satellite launches708

12 May The US Air Force ldquoofficially declared deadrdquo its US$800 million Milstar communications satellite Launched atop a Titan IV rocket on 30 April and placed in the wrong orbit the Milstar would ldquonever reach its intended 22300-mile-high [35900-kilometer-high] orbitrdquo US Air Force representative Aaron Renenger stated that the useless satellite ldquocould remain in orbit for hundreds of yearsrdquo but posed no threat to other spacecraft709

17 May The US Air Force announced that it had postponed indefinitely Brigadier General F Randall Starbuckrsquos departure from his command of the 45th Space Wing with responsibility for all

706 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Announces Comprehensive Space Sector Review Former Martin Marietta President Will Chair Independent Panelrdquo news release 4 May 1999 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_ releases1999LockheedMartinAnnouncesComprehensivhtml (accessed 7 February 2008) Tim Smart ldquoPanel To Review Lockheed Failures Former Company President To Head Probe of Aerospace Foul-Upsrdquo Washington Post 5 May 1999 707 Reuters ldquoUS Air Force Investigates Costly Satellite Lossrdquo 4 May 1999 708 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Announces Management Changesrdquo news release 11 May 1999 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases1999LockheedMartinAnnouncesManagementChhtml (accessed 6 February 2008) Tim Smart ldquoLockheed Revamping 2 Units New Leaders Named After Series of Launch Failuresrdquo Washington Post 12 May 1999 709 Associated Press ldquoAir Force Declares Military Satellite Deadrdquo 12 May 1999

197


military and commercial launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida The Air Force spokesperson did not state the reasons for the change Starbuck was to report on 3 June as Director of the Expeditionary Forces Management Team at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia His replacement Brigadier General Kevin P Chilton a former Space Shuttle Commander was to report on 3 June to Patrick Air Force Base to replace Starbuck as Commander of the 45th

Space Wing710

18 May NASA announced the appointment of Baruch S Blumberg winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine as Director of NASArsquos Astrobiology Institute effective immediately NASA had created the Astrobiology Institute in July 1998 a ldquovirtual organizationrdquo comprising NASArsquos centers universities and other scientific entities for the study of ldquothe origin evolution distribution and destiny of life in the universerdquo The Institute with a multidisciplinary focus sought to bring together astronomers biologists chemists exobiologists geologists and physicists to search for the origins of life NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin made the announcement of Blumbergrsquos appointment at Ames Research Center in Mountain View California the site of the Institutersquos headquarters Goldin stated that NASA had tasked the Astrobiology Institute with ldquoproviding the lsquointellectual underpinningsrsquo for building new types of instruments and space probes for finding life in the solar system and beyondrdquo711

20 May President of the Aerospace Industries Association John W Douglass testified before the US Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science Technology and Space that the nation needed an ldquoenlightenedrdquo national space program combining ldquopublic and private investment in synergistic waysrdquo Douglass stated that the government needed to ldquoremove barriers to the growth of commercial spacerdquo He said that the most critical action needed for the industryrsquos growth was renewal of the indemnification provisions of the Commercial Space Launch Act because without such provisions US companies are unable to compete with the government-backed programs of foreign competitors Douglass also testified that US launch ranges lacked modern facilities causing launch delays Such delays ldquowreak havocrdquo in the commercial world because launch sites require more time to reconfigure a launch than convenient for commercial enterprises He cited the export licensing process as a serious problem because it was causing the US commercial space industry to lose market share in both satellite and launch services Additionally Douglass called the ldquodramatic droprdquo in funding for aerospace research and development over the last two decades a ldquoserious structural problemrdquo which the United States should correct to remain competitive in the world market712

US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs Chairperson Fred Thompson (R-TN) announced the findings of a US General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation into NASArsquos computer security Thompson had requested the study which found that government specialists were able to penetrate several mission-critical systems and could have stolen modified or destroyed system software and data GAO had found that 135 of the 155 mission-critical systems

710 Robyn Suriano ldquoStarbuck Staying Put at Helm of 45th Space Wingrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 18 May 1999 711 NASA ldquoNobel Prize Winner To Lead NASA Astrobiology Instituterdquo news release 99-61 18 May 1999 Warren E Leary ldquoSearch for Life Beyond Earth Gets a Leaderrdquo New York Times 19 May 1999 712 ldquoAIA Urges Congress To Remove Barriers to Commercial Space Industryrdquo Aerospace News 20 May 1999

198


reviewed did not meet all of NASArsquos requirements for risk assessment Specifically NASA had not conducted an Agency-wide review of information-technology security since 1991 60 percent of reviewed systems had not been independently audited for security or weaknesses NASA had no security training program and NASA field centers did not report security incidents to a central location GAO had also found that NASA had no policy for determining what type of information its staff could post on public Web sites rendering it vulnerable to Internet attacks NASA also had no policy for protecting mission-critical systems from well-known Internet threats713

The US Air Force announced that Brigadier General Kevin P Chilton would not replace Brigadier General F Randall Starbuck as Commander of the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base but would lead the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento California Starbuck was to remain in command of the 45th Space Wing indefinitely until the Air Force had chosen another successor The change followed ldquothe US launch industryrsquos worst string of accidents in more than a decaderdquo including ldquothree consecutive failures of Air Force Titan rocketsrdquo launched from Cape Canaveral Florida The Air Force also reported that earlier in May a military navigation spacecraft had sustained US$51 million in damage during a thunderstorm The Air Force announced that it had opened a formal investigation into that incident in addition to the investigation President William J Clinton had ordered into the string of launch failures The President had appointed the CIA the US Department of Defense and NASA to carry out that investigation714

25 May An international team of astronomers led by Wendy L Freedman of the Carnegie Observatories held a news conference to announce their findings regarding the age of the universe Freedmanrsquos team had concluded that the universe was between 12 billion and 134 billion years old at least 1 billion years younger than predicted Freedmanrsquos international team had studied eight years of calculations made observations using NASArsquos Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and used a range of celestial measurements to recalculate the age of the universe Among those measurements was the ldquoHubble constantrdquo used in mathematical equations to ldquogauge the speed at which galaxies are accelerating away from each otherrdquo Named for Edwin Hubble who had discovered 70 years ago that the universe is expanding the Hubble constant is an essential piece of the equation determining the age and size of the universe The teamrsquos findings drew criticism from other astronomers Although the Australian physicist Charles H Lineweaver had conducted separate research with the same result as that of Freedmanrsquos team some astronomers associated with the Carnegie Observatories and Harvard University did not agree with the Freedman teamrsquos conclusions Allan Sandage of the Carnegie Observatories stated that he believed that the teamrsquos methodology contained systematic errors and that the final number was not correct Harvard University astronomer Robert P Kirshner had led a third team using the Hubble constant to study the age of the universe but although he calculated a different age than the other teams

713 Federal Document Clearing House ldquoThompson Says NASA Must Tighten Computer Securityrdquo government news release 20 May 1999 US General Accounting Office ldquoInformation Security Many NASA Mission-Critical Systems Face Serious Risksrdquo (report no GAOAIMD-99-47 Washington DC May 1999) httpwwwgaogov archive1999ai99047pdf (accessed 7 February 2008) 714 Robyn Suriano ldquoChilton Not Coming to Cape Starbuck To Remain Indefinitelyrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 21 May 1999

199


Kirshner downplayed the differences in their results remarking that ldquowhat was once a very big disagreement is now narrowing downrdquo715

26 May Indiarsquos government-run space agency began commercial operations with the launch from an island in the Bay of Bengal of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-2 (PSLV) carrying Indian German and South Korean satellites PSLV carried into orbit Oceansat-1 Indiarsquos remote-sensing satellite intended to carry out oceanographic research KITSAT-3 of South Korearsquos Satellite Technology Research Center and the German Aerospace Centerrsquos Tubsat Chairperson of Indian Space Research Organization Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan stated that India could ldquooffer to launch satellites at a much cheaper rate than other countries with launch facilitiesrdquo Without naming how much India was charging for its newly inaugurated launch services Kasturirangan said that in the international market it would cost US$1 million to piggyback a satellite716

27 May Space Shuttle Discovery launched successfully from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida after a one-week delay and a six-month ldquolaunch droughtrdquo NASA had delayed the launch of Mission STS-96 scheduled for 20 May after a violent thunderstorm earlier in the month damaged the Shuttlersquos external fuel tank requiring repairs The previous six months had been the longest period in NASArsquos history without any launches since the Challenger disaster which grounded the Shuttle fleet for two and one-half years However problems with the Shuttle fleet had not caused the delay during recent months Delays in the construction of a critical Russian-built component for the International Space Station (ISS) as well as ongoing problems with a grounded NASA x-ray telescope had disrupted the launch schedule Discoveryrsquos crew included Commander Kent V Rominger Pilot Rick D Husband and Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa Tamara E Jernigan Daniel T Barry Julie Payette and Valery I Tokarev During the 10-day ISS Assembly Mission 2A1 the crew planned to deliver supplies to the ISS to repair US and Russian equipment to install mufflers that would reduce the noise of the Russian fans and to conduct a spacewalk attaching one crane and part of another to the outside of the station STSshy96 (ISS 2A1) was the first mission to dock with the new ISS717

NASA released its first three-dimensional global map of Mars The Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) an instrument aboard NASArsquos Mars Global Surveyor had generated the data for the high-resolution map created from measurements gathered in 1998 and 1999 David E Smith of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center Principal Investigator for MOLA and the lead author of a study published in the journal Science said that according to the new topographic map Mars is slightly lopsided⎯the northern hemisphere is low and smooth but the southern hemisphere had

715 NASA Johnson Space Center ldquoHubble Completes Eight-Year Effort To Measure Expanding Universerdquo news release H99-65 25 May 1999 httpspaceflightnasagovspacenewsreleases1999H99-65html (accessed 2 January 2008) Robert Lee Hotz ldquoScientists Calculate Most Precise Age Yet for Universe Astronomy New Data Hubble Telescope Help Two Separate Teams Put Range at 12 Billion to 134 Billion Yearsrdquo Los Angeles Times 26 May 1999 716 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoIndian Rocket with Korean and German Satellites Takes Offrdquo 26 May 1999 717 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-96 Second International Space Station Flightrdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_ pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-96html (accessed 6 February 2008) Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttlerdquo 27 May 1999

200


many craters and an elevation of about 5 kilometers (31 miles) higher than that in the north Additionally Smith noted that the depression in Marsrsquos northern hemisphere is ldquodistinctly not circularrdquo indicating that it formed from internal geologic processes rather than an external impact Carl B Pilcher NASArsquos Science Director for Solar System Exploration commented that the data MOLA had collected enabled scientists to know ldquothe topography of Mars better than many continental regions on Earthrdquo Pilcher said that the data would ldquoserve as a basic reference book for Mars scientists for many yearsrdquo inspiring ldquonew insights about the planetrsquos geologic historyrdquo718

JUNE 1999

3 June NASA announced that spacecraft engineers who had worked on NASArsquos new Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) had won an American Electronics Association Technical Achievement Award for the ldquodevelopment of a spacecraft at a record-setting pace of one yearrdquo Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation of Boulder Colorado had built the satellite for NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) assembling the QuikSCAT faster than any construction of a spacecraft since the 1958 Explorer I satellite To accomplish this fast pace NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center had developed a new procurement system called the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition process to accelerate NASArsquos purchase procedure The new acquisition process had enabled NASA to take advantage of ldquolow-cost commercial technology from the burgeoning spacecraft industryrdquo to develop satellite systems such as the QuikSCAT NASA had been able to reduce the time needed to select a contractor and to initiate spacecraft development from one year to 30 days Chip Barnes a QuikSCAT spacecraft system engineer at Ball Aerospace commented that the production had involved a ldquoremarkable effort to get the spacecraft built integrated and tested in an 11-month time framerdquo719

6 June Space Shuttle Discovery landed safely at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida Shortly before returning to Earth astronauts aboard Discovery had completed their last assignment releasing Starshine an educational satellite that 25000 students worldwide would track over the following seven to eight months to calculate the atmospherersquos density The US$1 million Starshine a 19-inch (483-centimeter) sphere ldquocovered with 878 small circular mirrorsrdquo that schoolchildren had polished had become visible from the ground once it had ldquopoppedrdquo from its canister in the Shuttlersquos cargo bay In addition the astronauts had spent six of their 10 days in orbit at the new International Space Station (ISS) where the crew had performed maintenance tasks Discoveryrsquos crew had delivered 2 tons (1800 kilograms or 18 tonnes) of tools water and other supplies for the first permanent crew of the ISS scheduled to arrive in the spring of 2000720

718 NASA ldquoFirst Global 3-D View of Mars Reveals Deep Basin and Pathways for Water Flowrdquo news release 99-66 27 May 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-066txt (accessed 7 February 2008) David E Smith et al ldquoThe Global Topography of Mars and Implications for Surface Evolutionrdquo Science 284 no 5419 (28 May 1999) 1495ndash1503 719 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoQuikscat Team Wins American Electronics Achievement Awardrdquo news release 99-045 3 June 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99aeaawardhtml (accessed 12 February 2008) 720 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Astronauts Release Satellite Head for Homerdquo Washington Post 6 June 1999

201


7 June AlliedSignal Inc agreed to acquire Honeywell Inc in a stock deal worth US$138 billion Aerospace business with revenues totaling about 40 percent of the enterprise was the centerpiece of the agreement in which AlliedSignal added Honeywellrsquos business in cockpit electronics (avionics) and global-positioning equipment to its own market in aircraft engines and collision-avoidance systems An analyst with Frost and Sullivan a California-based market-research firm remarked that the merger put the combined company ahead of Rockwell Collins as ldquothe no 1 player in avionicsrdquo The new company would retain the name of Honeywell and maintain its headquarters at AlliedSignalrsquos base in New Jersey721

8 June Following a series of recent launch failures Boeing Company announced the convening of an independent panel of experts to examine its rocket programs specifically Boeingrsquos Delta Sea Launch and Inertial Upper Stage programs To head the panel Boeing had selected Sheila E Widnall former Secretary of the US Air Force and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology The panel was tasked with examining organizational roles and responsibilities within Boeing recent launch failure investigation findings processes used for government civil and commercial launches acceptance processes for major subsystems and complex assemblies from suppliers and manufacturing assembly transportation and storage activities of Boeing launch programs722

10 June A Boeing Delta II rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida carrying four Globalstar cellular telephone satellites Counting this launch Globalstar Inc had placed in orbit 24 of the 32 satellites the company needed to begin regional cellular phone service The company had planned to begin offering global cellular service in the latter part of 1998 but in September 1998 a failed launch destroyed a dozen satellites aboard a Ukrainian Zenit II rocket Globalstar had launched its first eight satellites on Delta II rockets during February and April 1998 and 12 more satellites early in 1999 on three Russian Soyuz rockets Globalstar was competing with its industry rival Iridium World Communications Inc which had placed a complete constellation of 66 satellites in orbit and had begun offering global cellular service before the end of 1998 To meet Globalstarrsquos launch demands over the summer of 1999 Boeing had increased the pace of manufacturing at its Pueblo Colorado rocket factory In addition Boeing brought 50 to 70 workers from its Delta launch team at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to join its Cape Canaveral workforce in Florida723

11 June Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Chinarsquos Shanxi Province launched two Iridium World Communications satellites into orbit aboard a Chinese Long March 2C rocket replenishing the 66-satellite Iridium constellation which provides telephone paging and fax communication services worldwide The satellite was the 57th launched from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center

721 Ameet Sachdev ldquoAircraft Supply Titan Is Createdrdquo St Petersburg Times (FL) 8 June 1999 722 Associated Press ldquoBoeing Forms Independent Panel To Review Space Failuresrdquo 9 June 1999 723 Todd Halvorson ldquoBoeing and Globalstar Begin Flurry of Launchesrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 11 June 1999

202


and the 15th consecutive successful launch since October 1996 for the Long March rocket series724

15 June The Boeing Company named former cosmonaut Vladimir G Titov as the companyrsquos director for Space and Communications Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States located in Boeingrsquos Moscow office With the appointment Titov became responsible for initiating new business opportunities working closely with Boeingrsquos ISS program members and with Russian and Ukrainian partners on the Sea Launch program A cosmonaut since 1976 Titov had commanded several Soyuz missions served as a mission specialist on two Space Shuttle missions and lived aboard Russiarsquos Mir space station logging 387 days in space including nearly 19 hours of extravehicular activity725

Keith R Hall Assistant Secretary of the US Air Force for Space and Director of the National Reconnaissance Office and Edward C ldquoPeterdquo Aldridge Jr Chief Executive Officer of the Aerospace Corporation which provides technical analysis for the United States and international space programs testified before the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligencersquos Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence regarding three rocket-launch failures All of the launch failures⎯an explosion after launch in August 1998 a missile-warning satellite launched into the wrong orbit on 9 April 1999 and a military communications satellite launched into the wrong orbit on 30 April 1999⎯had involved Lockheed Martin Titan IV rockets The three mission failures had cost taxpayers ldquoat least [US]$3 billionrdquo Hall explained that the US Air Force had traced the three launch failures to human error The investigators had traced the most recent failure specifically to a misplaced decimal point Aldridge whose company had been responsible for checking US Air Force rockets for defects prior to launch explained that the mistake ldquogot throughrdquo despite the system in place to prevent such occurrences Aldridge remarked that his companyrsquos workforce of engineers scientists and support personnel had decreased by 30 percent since 1993 and that the recent launch failures had caused further delays resulting in increased costs for the Titan program Both Aldridge and Hall requested federal funding House Subcommittee Chairperson Michael N Castle (R-DE) asked whether the military rocket program which receives less supervision than NASA needed greater congressional oversight Castle announced that the subcommittee would hold further public hearings on the failures726

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) detached the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-L (GOES-L) from an Atlas IIA rocket returning the satellite to the integration facility Astrotech where engineers planned to recondition its batteries and purge it of gaseous nitrogen to prevent degradation NOAA had planned to store the satellite in orbit ready to replace one of the weather satellites GOES-8 or GOES-10 but GOES-L had been on the launchpad since 6 May On 15 May NASA and NOAA had decided to delay the launch

724 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoIridium Launches Two More Satellitesrdquo 11 June 1999 725 The Boeing Company ldquoDirector Space amp Communications for Russia and CIS Namedrdquo news release 15 June 1999 httpwwwboeingcomnewsreleases1999news_release_990615rhtml (accessed 8 February 2008) 726 Stephen Sobek for Gannett News Service ldquoHuman Error Called Culprit in 3 Rocket Launch Failuresrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 16 June 1999

203


of GOES-L until they had received the results of the investigations into the recent Titan and Delta launch failures727

16 June NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight Joseph H Rothenberg announced several immediate management changes in the Office of Space Flight NASA appointed William F Readdy former Director for Space Shuttle Requirements as Deputy Associate Administrator with primary responsibility for daily management of personnel and program activities Having participated in Shuttle missions in 1992 1993 and 1996 Readdy was an astronaut on flight status eligible for future Shuttle missions NASA appointed W Michael Hawes a former chief engineer for the ISS as Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Development (Space Station) responsible for directing the space station budget establishing and implementing station policy coordinating external communications and serving as a liaison to the executive branch Congress industry and NASArsquos international partners Norman B Starkey replaced Readdy as Director for Space Shuttle Requirements assuming responsibilities that included directing the Space Shuttle budget establishing and implementing Shuttle policy coordinating external communications and serving as a liaison to the executive branch Congress industry and NASArsquos international partners728

17 June NASA disclosed that a sequence of computer commands issued by flight controllers on the ground had failed to fire the ISSrsquos engines placing the uninhabited space station in potential danger The cause of the failure was human error Flight controllers had sent commands directing the new space station to move out of the path of a piece of space junk which posed a danger to the craft A US military organization tracking such objects had predicted that the ldquofairly largerdquo piece of space junk of Russian origin would pass within 06 miles (1 kilometer) of the space station on 13 June However the debris came no closer to the new ISS than 45 miles (72 kilometers) A collision could have destroyed the uninhabited space station NASArsquos Deputy Program Manager for Space Station Operations Frank L Culbertson Jr explained that because the space stationrsquos computers had rejected the flight controllersrsquo faulty commands the station had no motion control for an entire orbit729

19 June A Lockheed Martin Titan II rocket launched successfully carrying JPLrsquos QuikSCAT satellite Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation had built QuikSCAT in 11 months setting an industry record JPL stated that the satellite had ldquoopened its solar arrays as planned an hour after launch and a tracking station in Norway acquired the first signal from the spacecraft 18 minutes laterrdquo NASA had originally scheduled the satellitersquos launch for November 1998 but delayed it when a Titan IVA exploded after launch carrying a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office NASA had postponed the QuikSCAT launch until engineers could determine whether Titan II used any of the hardware that had caused the explosion on the Titan IVA Following the

727 NOAA ldquoWeather Satellite De-mated from Launch Vehicle NOAA and NASA Announcerdquo news release 15 June 1999 httpwwwpublicaffairsnoaagovreleases99june99noaa99GOESDematehtml (accessed 12 February 2008) 728 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Key Space Flight Managersrdquo news release 99-71 16 June 1999 729 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoSpace Stationrdquo 18 June 1999

204


launch of a Titan IVB rocket that placed a Milstar satellite in a faulty orbit NASA had again delayed the QuikSCATrsquos launch pending investigation of the failure The successfully launched QuikSCAT satellite was on a two-year mission with the option of a third year to ldquogather about 400000 detailed measurements of the speed and direction of winds over the oceanrsquos surfacerdquo NASA intended the US$98 million mission to ldquoimprove weather forecasting and detect the onset of conditions like El Nintildeordquo Engineers had designed the QuikSCAT to radiate microwave pulses over wide areas and to listen for the pulsesrsquo echo Those return signals would ldquoallow scientists to determine wind speeds and directions at the surface of the oceans Understanding the interaction [of wind and ocean circulation] is important for weather predictionrdquo Under the terms of NASArsquos first contract using the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition process Ball Aerospace had provided the QuikSCAT spacecraft bus launch interface system integration test launch support and two years of mission operations730

21 June NASA announced the appointment of N Jan Davis Director of the Human Exploration and Development of Space Independent Assurance Office as Deputy Director of the new Flight Projects Directorate at NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville Alabama effective July 1999 NASA had tasked the Directorate with overseeing ldquodevelopment of crucial parts of the ISSrdquo such as connecting Nodes 2 and 3 the Multi-purpose Logistics Modules commercial EXPRESS (EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to the Space Station) racks the environmental and life support systems and the Payload Operations Integration Center Davis had begun her NASA career at MSFC in 1979 leading a team ldquoresponsible for structural analysis of the Hubble Space Telescope the telescope-servicing mission and the Chandra X-ray Observatoryrdquo She had also served as ldquolead engineer for the redesign of the Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster External Tank attach ringrdquo before becoming an astronaut in 1987 Davis had flown on three Shuttle missions logging more than 670 hours in space731

22 June NASArsquos JPL announced that Discover Magazine had awarded NASArsquos Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) program team its Award for Technological Innovation in the exploration category The annual awards ldquohonor teams whose innovations improve the quality of everyday liferdquo The NSTAR program team won the award for its work on the futuristic ion-propulsion system used on NASArsquos Deep Space 1 spacecraft732

24 June

730 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoLockheed Martinrsquos Titan Launches with QuikScat Satelliterdquo 20 June 1999 ldquoSatellite Launched on Weather Missionrdquo New York Times 20 June 1999 Aerospace Daily ldquoQuikSCAT Makes It to Space After Six-Month Delayrdquo 22 June 1999 Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp ldquoBATC Launches Its First Commercial Spacecraftrdquo news release 19 June 1999 httpwwwballaerospacecompagejsppage=30ampid=30 (accessed 25 February 2008) 731 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center ldquoAstronaut Jan Davis Returns to Marshall Space Flight Centerrdquo news release 99-102 21 June 1999 httpwwwmsfcnasagovnewsnewsreleases199999-102html (accessed 11 February 2008) James McWilliams ldquoEx-Astronaut Named Marshall Executiverdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 22 June 1999 732 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoIon Propulsion System Wins Discover Magazine Awardrdquo news release 99shy054 22 June 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99discoverawardshtml (accessed 11 February 2008)

205


NASA successfully launched its Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) telescope aboard a Delta II rocket FUSErsquos three-year mission was to measure the abundance of deuterium or heavy hydrogen which stars consume every day and convert to helium Astronomers hoped that the study of deuterium would help them understand better ldquowhat the universe was like moments after creationrdquo The FUSE scientists sought to determine how much deuterium still exists and how much of it stars consume regularly thereby calculating ldquothe original makeup of the universerdquo NASA had nearly cancelled the FUSE project in the early 1990s because of cost overruns and missed deadlines but in 1994 NASA had asked Johns Hopkins University to manage the project Project managers at Johns Hopkins had scaled down the scientific instrument and used existing equipment instead of developing new technologies The Canadian Space Agency had provided the camera the French Space Agency had provided the spectrograph and other US universities had provided various parts for the telescope Orbital Sciences Corporation had built the spacecraft using an existing design to reduce costs further NASA considered the spacecraft and its launch a success NASArsquos Science Director Edward J Weiler remarked ldquoWe have never had a satellite as sensitive as FUSErdquo733

25 June NASA announced that the WIRE Mishap Investigation Board had concluded that NASArsquos Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) satellite had failed after its 4 March 1999 launch ldquobecause of an incorrectly designed electronics boxrdquo The premature firing of explosive devices⎯the pyrotechnics⎯had caused the instrumentrsquos telescope cover to eject too early in the mission thus exposing the instrumentrsquos frozen hydrogen to the Sun The frozen hydrogen was necessary to cool the telescopersquos infrared detectors The satellite had lost the frozen hydrogen within 48 hours of its launch rendering the instrument incapable of carrying out its scientific mission Darrell R Branscome Deputy Associate Administrator (Enterprise Development) for NASArsquos Office of Space Flight and chairperson of the eight-member investigation team emphasized that there had been no component failure but ldquosimply a case of a design error that allowed power to get to the explosive charges before it should haverdquo The boardrsquos report also concluded that engineers had failed to identify the design errors in the circuitry controlling the pyrotechnical functions Unlike the other systems in the satellite the electronics box design had received no peer review734

28 June NASA announced its decision to end a US$240 million project to land a small spacecraft on a comet so that scientists could learn how to destroy a comet if it were on course to collide with Earth NASA had planned to launch the probe in 2003 and to land it on the surface of Comet Tempel 1 in 2005 After landing the probe was to drill into the nucleus of the comet helping scientists understand the cometrsquos composition Manager of the Space Technology 4 project Brian Muirhead remarked ldquowe know very very little about how comets are formed and what their constituency isrdquo adding that anyone serious about planetary protection must learn more about comets NASArsquos JPL was in the early stages of developing the Space Technology 4Champollion project and had only spent US$10 million NASA had also considered canceling Mars Surveyor 2001 but had already spent US$100 million on that project Other projects were experiencing

733 Washington Times ldquoSpecial Telescope To Look for First Signs of Creationrdquo 25 June 1999 Steven Young for Reuters ldquoNASA Launches Telescope To Seek Universersquos Originrdquo 24 June 1999 734 NASA ldquoInvestigation Finds Design Errors Caused WIRE Spacecraft Failurerdquo news release 99-74 25 June 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-074txt (accessed 11 February 2008)

206


cost overruns also such as the US$15 billion Chandra X-ray Observatory which needed an extra US$60 million to cover last-minute development problems NASA intended to redirect some funds from Space Technology 4 to other missions experiencing funding difficulties such as Chandra735

JULY 1999

5 July The Russian Defense Ministry launched Raduga-1 an early-warning-system satellite for detecting missile launches aboard a Proton-K booster rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Ground controllers lost communication with the satellite minutes after its launch and just as it reached its preliminary orbit both the satellite and the second stage of the rocket crashed in a remote region of Kazakhstan Russian space officials initially stated that the satellite had crashed in an uninhabited area but a Russian television network reported that a large piece of the Proton rocket had fallen onto farmland in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan nearly hitting a house Nobody was injured in the crash736

6 July Pending the outcome of an investigation into the crash of a Russian Proton rocket the previous day the Kazakhstan government banned Russian launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome causing a potentially significant disruption to Russiarsquos commercial satellite launch program Kazakhstanrsquos foreign ministry informed the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that launches from the facility would cease until investigators had identified the causes of the crash and evaluated the damage sustained The ministry did not indicate how long the ban would remain in effect Kazakhstan investigators collected soil and water samples to test for possible hazardous material dispersed in the crash737

8 July Astronaut Charles P ldquoPeterdquo Conrad Jr died at age 69 of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident George W S Abbey Director of Johnson Space Center described Conrad the third man to walk on the Moon as a person who ldquocombined skill and ability with wit and humor to become one of the courageous pioneers who took humankind beyond the bounds of our planetrdquo As an example of Conradrsquos wit Abbey quoted his parody of the famous words Neil A Armstrong had uttered when taking his first steps on the Moon Upon leaving the lunar module Intrepid on 19 November 1969 for his own moonwalk Conrad had quipped ldquoWhoopee Man that may have been a small one for Neil but thatrsquos a long one for merdquo Conrad had been a member of NASArsquos second candidate class of astronauts in 1962 and had flown on the Gemini 5 mission with L Gordon Cooper Jr The pair had spent a record eight days in orbit in August 1965 perfecting techniques for later lunar missions In September 1966 Conrad had commanded the Gemini 11 mission during that mission he and Richard F Gordon Jr had linked their Gemini spacecraft with an Agena target vehicle establishing a record for the fastest space rendezvous and docking in history Conrad had also served as Commander of the Apollo 12 mission in November 1969 with Alan Bean and Richard Gordon as crewmates During his final

735 Matthew Fordahl for Associated Press ldquoComet Landerrdquo 29 June 1999 736 United Press International ldquoRussian Satellite Crashes into Kazakhstanrdquo 6 July 1999 737 Sujata Rao for Reuters ldquoKazakhstan Halts Russian Space Launchesrdquo 6 July 1999

207


spaceflight in 1973 Conrad had been the first Commander of Skylab the first American space station The Skylab crew had spent 28 days in space establishing another endurance record Conrad had won the Congressional Space Medal of Honor two NASA Distinguished Service Medals two NASA Exceptional Service Medals two Navy Distinguished Service Medals and two Distinguished Flying Crosses738

Ukrainersquos Prime Minister Valery Pustovoitenko appealed to Kazakhstanrsquos Premier Nurlan Balgimbayev to permit the launch of the Okean-O research satellite aboard a Ukrainian Zenit rocket despite the launch ban following the 5 July crash of a Russian rocket Ukrainian officials expressed concern that a delay beyond 15 July with the rocketrsquos lengthy stay on the launchpad would endanger the prospect of a successful launch The Ukrainian space program seeking to compete in the lucrative commercial space market was under pressure to make a successful launch after the crash in September 1998 of a Zenit rocket destroying 12 of Globalstar Incrsquos communications satellites739

10 July After a two-day delay because of high-altitude winds the Boeing Company successfully launched a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida carrying four Globalstar communications satellites An hour after launch the rocket deployed the 988-pound (448-kilogram) satellites in pairs bringing the total number of satellites in Globalstar Incrsquos constellation to 28 4 less than the 32 needed to begin network service740

13 July Donald D Engen Director of the Smithsonian Institutionrsquos National Air and Space Museum and William Ivans an internationally known award-winning pilot from La Jolla California died when the motorized glider that Ivans was piloting broke apart and crashed Investigators were attempting to determine the cause of the accident Larry Sanderson President of the Soaring Society of America remarked that ldquoboth victims were top pilots in lsquoan extremely well-built aircraft So it had to be a very unusual set of circumstances that stressed the craftrsquordquo Both Engen and Ivans were officers of the Soaring Society and Ivans a pioneer in the field had won many awards for high-altitude soaring Engen had retired from the US Navy in 1978 with the rank of vice admiral and had been a test pilot for many years After retiring from the Navy he had served for two years on the National Transportation Safety Board and as administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration between 1984 and 1987 He became Director of the National Air and Space Museum in 1996 following the resignation of Martin O Harwit741

President Nursultan Nazarbayev set Kazakhstanrsquos conditions for permitting Russia to launch a Progress cargo craft carrying supplies to the Mir space station scheduled to lift off from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 14 July Kazakhstan had suspended all Russian launches from the facility following the crash of a Russian Proton-K rocket on 5 July Nazarbayevrsquos terms for

738 NASA Johnson Space Center ldquoThird Man To Walk on Moon Dies in Motorcycle Accidentrdquo news release J99shy24 9 July 1999 httpwwwnasagovcentersjohnsonnewsreleases1999_2001j99-24html (accessed 2 January 2008) 739 Pavel Polityuk for Reuters ldquoUkraine Appeals for Rocket Launch amid Kazakh Rowrdquo 740 Justin Ray ldquoThird Try Was the Charm for Delta 2 Rocketrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 11 July 1999 741 Washington Times ldquoAir and Space Director Killed in Glider Crashrdquo 14 July 1999

208


permitting the launch of the Progress craft included Russiarsquos payment of its US$300 million debt for the lease of Baikonur Cosmodrome and a visit of high-level Russian officials to the Proton-K rocketrsquos crash site742

Kenneth R Timmerman President of Middle East Data Project Inc testified before the US House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics that Iran was designing a new missile named Kosar capable of reaching the continental United States Timmerman stated that NASA had given Russian aerospace entities millions of dollars for the Russian space program but that Russia had diverted those funds to support Iranrsquos missile program House Committee on Science and Technology Chairperson F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) remarked that each new report of Russian proliferation activities raised the possibility that NASA was inadvertently subsidizing Russian industries which the United States believed were helping Iran to threaten the United Statesrsquo friends and allies in the Middle East and in Europe Henry D Sokolski Executive Director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center testified that legislation sponsored by Representative Benjamin A Gilman (R-NY) was critical to ensuring Russiarsquos cooperation with the nonproliferation efforts of the United States Gilmanrsquos legislation would require the President of the United States to determine whether Russia was ldquoassisting Iranrsquos programs to develop weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missilesrdquo If the President determined that Russia was furnishing such aid to Iran the federal government would prohibit NASA from ldquotransferring US tax dollars to the [Russian Space Agency] or any enterprise under the [Russian Space Agency] jurisdictionrdquo An unnamed NASA official testified that to replace the operational capabilities that Russia provided to the International Space Program would cost as much as US$5 billion743

14 July The Boeing Company announced that it had completed negotiations on a cooperative agreement with NASA to develop an experimental space plane The US$173 million contract stipulated that Boeing and the federal government share costs equally Boeing and NASA hoped that the X-37 space plane previously called the Future-X Pathfinder would ldquoserve as a test bed for new reusable launch technologiesrdquo helping to achieve the ldquogoal of reducing the cost of placing space vehicles and cargo into orbitrdquo Boeing envisioned a vehicle that would be ldquounpiloted autonomously operated and capable of speeds up to Mach 25 while demonstrating aircraft-like operationsrdquo NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center led the X-37 government team comprising the US Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base and NASA facilities including Ames Research Center Kennedy Space Center Goddard Space Flight Center Langley Research Center and Dryden Flight Research Center744

Kazakhstan partially lifted its ban on launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome permitting a Russian Progress cargo spacecraft to deliver supplies to the Mir space station Kazakhstan had agreed to permit the Progress launch after receiving Russiarsquos promise to pay a US$115 million

742 Sujata Rao for Reuters ldquoKazakhstan Sets Terms for Russian Space Launchrdquo 13 July 1999 743 Audrey Hudson ldquoAnalyst Fears US Helps Iran Develop Missile via Moscow Russia Diverts Aid from Its Space Agencyrdquo Washington Times 14 July 1999 744 The Boeing Company ldquoNASA Boeing Sign X-37 Vehicle Agreementrdquo news release 14 July 1999 httpwww boeingcomnewsreleases1999news_release_990714thtml (accessed 19 February 2008) John OrsquoDell ldquoCalifornia Southland Focus Boeing NASA Agree on Space Plane Contractrdquo Los Angeles Times 15 July 1999

209


fee for the use of the launch facility Russia had agreed to pay US$50 million in cash by November 1999 and US$65 million in goods by 2000 Kazakhstanrsquos launch ban on Proton-K rockets remained in effect745

16 July A Russian Progress M42 cargo spacecraft launched with a Soyuz-U rocket to deliver supplies to the Mir space station Supplies included equipment necessary to keep an uninhabited station operational and equipment for conducting a controlled reentry in the event that Russia could not obtain the resources necessary to continue operation The launch was the first since Kazakhstanrsquos partial relaxation of a launch ban at Baikonur Cosmodrome746

17 July A Russian rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying a scientific satellite into orbit It was the second launch from the facility since Kazakhstan partially lifted the launch ban imposed following the crash of a Proton-K rocket on 5 July747

19 July The United Nations opened a conference scheduled to run through 30 July on space technology and exploration the first such conference held in 17 years The primary goals of the Unispace III conference included 1) adopting the Vienna Declaration which provided ldquointernational guidelines for the use and environmental protection of outer spacerdquo 2) addressing the cleanup of debris in space including satellites or parts of spacecraft no longer in use but continuing to orbit and 3) ensuring the accessibility of information from outer space to all people regardless of a countryrsquos ability to support costly space exploration programs In his opening remarks UN Secretary General Kofi Annan ldquourged the peaceful use of outer spacerdquo suggesting the necessity of a legal instrument such as the Vienna Declaration to prevent space from ldquobecoming another arena of military confrontationrdquo Because joint development programs between the UN and private industries were necessary to achieve the conferencersquos goals businesses involved in space technology participated in Unispace for the first time

20 July The salvage team lifted astronaut Virgil I ldquoGusrdquo Grissomrsquos Mercury capsule to the surface of the Atlantic Ocean just one day before the 38th anniversary of the astronautrsquos historic suborbital flight The second American in space Grissom had flown in his Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule on 21 July 1961 After its ocean landing the capsulersquos hatch had blown open prematurely nearly drowning him Both the location of the capsule and the cause of the accident had remained a mystery until 1 May 1999 when a salvage team led by Curt Newport and funded by the Discovery Channel had discovered the spacecraft 3 miles (48 kilometers) beneath the ocean Even after the team had retrieved the capsule the cause of the accident remained a mystery The

745 Reuters ldquoKazakhstan Lifts Space Ban Russian Launch Clearedrdquo 14 July 1999 Associated Press ldquoRussiashyKazakhstan-Spacerdquo 14 July 1999 746 Spacewarn Bulletin no 549 1 August 1999 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx549html (accessed 29 October 2008) 747 Washington Times ldquoRussian Satellite Launched in Kazakhstanrdquo 18 July 1999

210


salvage team had yet to locate the capsulersquos hatch which Newport believed had the greatest potential for determining what had caused the malfunction at the end of Grissomrsquos flight748

23 July During a spacewalk lasting nearly 6 hours cosmonauts Viktor M Afanasyev and Sergei V Avdeyev searched for the source of a leak that was slowly causing pressure loss in Mir they also attempted to install an antenna needed for an experiment Both efforts failed The leak first detected in late June 1999 was ldquoabove the allowable limitrdquo Although it posed no immediate threat to the space station if the leak continued for three more months the station would become uninhabitable749

After two delays Space Shuttle Columbia launched on Mission STS-93 from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida under the command of Eileen M Collins NASArsquos first female Shuttle commander in 38 years of human spaceflight Commander Collinsrsquos crew comprised Pilot Jeffrey S Ashby and Mission Specialists Steven A Hawley Catherine G Coleman and Michel Tognini Columbia carried on board the US$15 billion Chandra X-ray Observatory previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) as well as secondary payloads and experiments⎯the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System to capture ultraviolet imagery of the Earth Moon Mercury Venus and Jupiter plant growth experiments biological cell-culture studies and the Treadmill Vibration Information System and High Definition Television System which the crew planned to test NASA had scrubbed both of the Shuttlersquos earlier launch attempts late in the countdown halting the 20 July launch 6 seconds before blastoff because of a technical malfunction and the 22 July launch because of stormy weather The US Air Force and the Boeing Company postponed a commercial launch to permit NASA a third chance to deliver Chandra into orbit However the Shuttle continued to have problems During the 8-minute climb into outer space a 05-second-long short circuit shut down computers controlling two of the Shuttlersquos three main engines Furthermore Columbia was 4000 pounds (1800 kilograms) short of liquid oxygen fuel in its external fuel tank leaving the craft in orbit 7 miles (11 kilometers) lower than planned Fuel carried aboard the orbiter made up the shortfall Seven hours into the flight the crew deployed Chandra into orbit accomplishing its primary mission750

27 July Commander Eileen M Collins became the first woman to ldquoland a spaceship of any kind anywhererdquo when she guided Space Shuttle Columbia to a safe late night landing at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida the 12th nighttime touchdown in the Shuttle programrsquos 95-flight history A few hours after the landing NASA confirmed that hydrogen fuel had leaked from one of the

748 Los Angeles Times ldquoGrissomrsquos Mercury Capsule Recoveredrdquo 21 July 1999 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoExpedition Begins To Recover Mercury Capsule from Oceanrdquo 2 July 1999 749 Nikolai Pavlov for Reuters ldquoMir Crew Spacewalks To Seek Pressure Leakrdquo 23 July 1999 Kansas City Star (MO) ldquoAntenna Failure Prevents Mir Test Two Cosmonauts Give Up After Trying To Fix It for Six Hoursrdquo 24 July 1999 750 USA Today ldquoShuttle Lifts Off with Woman in Commandrdquo 23 July 1999 Brad Liston for Reuters ldquoShuttle Roars into History After Launch Problemsrdquo 23 July 1999 Beth Dickey ldquoAfter Hiccup at Liftoff Shuttle Puts Telescope into Spacerdquo New York Times 25 July 1999 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-93 Chandra X-ray Observatoryrdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-93html (accessed 29 October 2008)

211


craftrsquos main engines during liftoff on 23 July Columbiarsquos mission lasting just five days was the shortest planned flight in nine years751

28 July Two Russian cosmonauts carried out a successful 5frac12-hour spacewalk outside Mir installing equipment and opening the antenna that they had failed to unfold properly in a previous spacewalk Russian space officials said that the spacewalk was most likely the last to occur at Mir This was the seventh spacewalk for Mir Commander Viktor M Afanasyev and the eighth spacewalk for Flight Engineer Sergei V Avdeyev who had spent a record-making cumulative total of 717 days in space752

NASA announced that after Space Shuttle Columbiarsquos return to Earth on the night of 27 July engineers had found ldquothree little holesrdquo in its right engine nozzle confirming that the Shuttle had leaked hydrogen fuel during liftoff The holes 025 inches (064 centimeters) in size had caused the craft to lose up to 5 pounds (23 kilograms) of fuel during each second of its 8frac12-minute climb to orbit753

29 July NASA scientists announced that because the Deep Space 1 spacecraft had aimed its camera incorrectly when it flew within 15 miles (24 kilometers) of a small asteroid named Braille the craft had failed to capture an image However the craft had succeeded in its primary mission to test 12 new technologies during the flyby thereby validating the instrumentsrsquo future use in solar-system probes Deep Space 1 was equipped with ldquoa mind of its ownrdquo enabling it to navigate through space without much assistance from ground control The craft had traveled at 35000 miles (56000 kilometers) per hour relative to the asteroid which was 117 million miles (188 million kilometers) from Earth The flyby of the Braille asteroid the final test of Deep Space 1rsquos Autonomous Navigation System had been the closest any spacecraft had come to an object in our solar system without landing754

31 July NASArsquos Lunar Prospector crashed into a frozen crater on the Moon but detected no water upon impact Scientists believing that the crater held frozen water had hoped that the ldquofire and violence of the collision would vaporize icerdquo sending a ldquowet plume detectable by special instruments spiraling into the lunar skyrdquo Telescopes equipped with ultraviolet detectors recorded hours of data after the impact searching for the ldquochemical signaturerdquo of water The Prospector mission which had lasted 18 months following its 6 January 1998 launch had used five instruments to ldquomap the magnetic chemical and gravitational character of the [M]oonrdquo755

751 Atlanta Journal (GA) ldquoShuttle Columbia Woman Commander Kept Cool During Snafusrdquo 28 July 1999 Los Angeles Times ldquo1st Shuttle Led by Woman Lands Safely in Floridardquo 28 July 1999 752 Reuters ldquoMir Cosmonauts Make Final Spacewalkrdquo 28 July 1999 753 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoNASA Confirms Hydrogen Leak in Columbia Shuttlerdquo 29 July 1999 754 Washington Times ldquoSpacecraft Misses Asteroid Snapshot Camera Canrsquot See Rock Called Braillerdquo 30 July 1999 755 Associated Press ldquoSpacecraft Smashes into Moon Scientists Hoping for Evidence of Ice Vapor in Lunar Skyrdquo Washington Post 1 August 1999

212


AUGUST 1999

2 August NASA announced the student winners of the 1998ndash1999 National General Aviation Design Competition sponsored by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) A team of 33 students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach Florida had produced the winning design ldquoaimed at attracting customers who want to move from propeller-driven craft to jets without needing a significant increase in pilot skillrdquo A 13-member team from Pennsylvania State University in University Park Pennsylvania won second place for their ldquoBaracudardquo an acronym for Boldly Advanced and Refined Aircraft Concept Under Development for AGATE a national general aviation revitalization program The teamrsquos ldquoconventional-layout modern-composite airplane featuring advanced aerodynamics systems and avionicsrdquo was a four-place single-engine jet-powered aircraft A three-university team⎯the University of Virginia Old Dominion University in Hampton Virginia and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn New York⎯won third place for a ldquohighly innovative design known as the lsquoYeah Manrsquordquo a craft with two tail booms each with vertical tails The aircraft which NASA scientists had tested in the Full Scale Wind Tunnel at Langley Research Center showed good aerodynamic characteristics756

5 August NASA selected two software programs for the 1999 NASA Software of the Year award from 50 entries representing more than 150 corporations universities and government laboratories In the 1970s NASArsquos Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field (GRC)⎯at that time the Lewis Research Center⎯had begun to develop the first award-winning program the GenoaProgressive Failure Analysis Software System to simulate and predict ldquoaging and failure in all sorts of structural materials including high-tech alloys and ceramics used in airplanes cars engines and bridgesrdquo In 1998 NASArsquos Small Business Innovation Research program had commercialized the software primarily for the use of aircraft manufacturers Ames Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) had developed the other winning software the Remote Agent program a ldquoprecursor to self-aware self-controlled robots exploring rovers and intelligent machinesrdquo NASA had used the Remote Agent software to plan three days of activities for Deep Space 1 and the spacecraft had ldquocarried out the plan without ground interventionrdquo757

9 August SPACEHAB Inc and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) signed a contract granting SPACEHAB the use of one of the CSArsquos experiment lockers on the International Space Station (ISS) beginning in May 2001 According to the agreement between the two organizations the CSA had committed to commercializing half of its allocated space aboard the space station a global first in space commercialization758

756 NASA ldquoNASA and FAA Pick Student Aircraft-Design Contest Winnersrdquo news release 99-87 2 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-087txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 757 NASA ldquoNASArsquos 1999 Software of the Year Makes Cars Safer and Spacecraft Cheaperrdquo news release 99-90 5 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-090txt (accessed 15 February 2008) NASA ldquoNASA SBIR Success-Genoardquo httpsbirgsfcnasagovSBIRsuccessesss3-048texthtml (accessed 22 February 2008) 758 SPACEHAB Inc ldquoGround Breaking Deal Opens New Space Frontier SPACEHAB Buys First Commercial Rights Aboard International Space Stationrdquo news release 9 August 1999 httpwwwspacehabcomnews1999 99_08_09htm (accessed 25 February 2008)

213


10 August NASA and the National Research Council of Canada signed a protocol at the Aerospace North America conference in Vancouver British Columbia founding the Aircraft Icing Research Alliance and drafting the Aircraft Icing Research Strategic Plan to ldquoprovide a framework for collaboration to develop critical aircraft icing technologiesrdquo The Alliance planned to add more partners such as the United Statesrsquo FAA Environment Canada Transport Canada and other government agencies universities industrial firms and organizations interested in aviation-icing research759

11 August Robert Thomas ldquoRTrdquo Jones who had ldquoled the development of the swept-back jet wing design that revolutionized air travel and enabled planes to break the sound barrierrdquo died at the age of 89 Jones had begun designing the swept-back wings in 1944 when airplane wings were perpendicular to the fuselage while working at NACA (National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics) NASArsquos predecessor agency In 1945 Jones had conducted airflow studies showing that a cone-shaped shock wave cut across the tips of straight wings causing deterioration at Mach 1 the speed of sound Jones had concluded that a swept-back design would preserve the wings and reduce drag Although his idea was initially ignored ldquovirtually every commercial and military jet uses the design todayrdquo Jonesrsquos later research had included work on the oblique wing ldquomounted on a pivot on top of the fuselagerdquo The oblique wing maintained a right angle to the fuselage for maximum lift during takeoff but the pilot could manipulate it so that at cruising altitude one wing tip pointed forward and one backward saving fuel generating less engine noise and eliminating the sonic boom Although Jonesrsquos oblique wing design had never advanced beyond the testing stage some aeronautical designers continued to study its possibilities760

NASArsquos largest balloon⎯39 million cubic feet (11 million cubic meters) in volume and 60 stories high⎯lifted off from Lynn Lake in Manitoba Canada to carry out a 38-hour flight more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) above Earth The balloon carried a Japanese-built instrument the Superconducting Solenoidal Magnet to collect particles of antimatter Shuji Orito of the University of Tokyo led the project called BESS (Balloon Borne Experiment with a Superconducting Solenoidal Magnet) NASA sponsored the United Statesrsquo portion of the mission and Monbusho sponsored the Japanese portion761

Kazakhstanrsquos Finance Minister Uraz Dzhandosov announced that Russia had paid US$125 million as a first installment of its debt to Kazakhstan fulfilling a condition of the agreement between the two countries Kazakhstan had demanded the payment as part of the terms of lifting the launch ban it had imposed on Russia when a Russian Proton rocket exploded after liftoff from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan762

759 NASA ldquoNASA and Canada Join Forces To Combat Aircraft Icingrdquo news release 99-92 11 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-092txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 760 Washington Post ldquoRobert Jones Dies Led Breakthrough on Wing Designrdquo 15 August 1999 761 NASA ldquoBalloon-Borne Instrument Collects Antimatterrdquo news release 99-93 16 August 1999 httpwwwnasa govhomehqnews199999-093txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 762 Russia Today ldquoRussia Pays First Part of Baikonur Debt 12 August 1999

214


China confirmed that it had fired its new Dong Feng-31 (DF-31) missile during a test launch on 2 August publicizing details of the successful launch of the long-range ground-to-ground intercontinental strategic ballistic missile The Chinese Guangzhou Daily reported that the ldquothree-stage solid-fuel rocket was launched from northern Shanxi province and crashed down in the western territory of Xinjiangrdquo Janersquos Defence Weekly estimated that the DF-31 had an 8000-kilometer (5000-mile) range and was capable of carrying a 700-kilogram (1500-pound) nuclear warhead Robert Karniol a foreign correspondent covering Asia for the defense industry publication Janersquos remarked that ldquothe DF-31 should be operationally deployed by China in 2000rdquo and that the country expected to build 10 to 20 of the missiles some replacing 1960s-era missiles with half the range of the DF-31 The Guangzhou Daily also reported that China had developed the technology for piloted spaceflight Wang Xinqing head of the China Carrier-Rocket Research Institute which designs military- and civilian-use rockets stated that the core of the program was the development of a new series of carrier rockets Long March 5 Wang Xinqing also refuted a report by the US Congress alleging that China had stolen the United Statesrsquo missile and nuclear warhead technology insisting that China had perfected the rocketry before the United States had achieved it763

The US General Accounting Office (GAO) published a report critical of the X-33 program jointly sponsored by NASA and Lockheed Martin concluding that the program was unlikely to meet its original cost schedule and performance goals because of increased costs delayed testing and revised objectives However NASA and Lockheed Martin responded that they expected the program to ldquoachieve technical requirements such as demonstrating the feasibility of building large liquid hydrogen fuel tanks made of graphite composite materialrdquo The purpose of the X-33 Program was to develop and demonstrate advanced technologies for use on future reusable launch vehicles such as the companyrsquos VentureStar TM764

12 August NASArsquos GRC announced that for the first time researchers had suspended particles of frozen hydrogen in liquid helium the first step toward creating new rocket fuels that could revolutionize rocket-propulsion technology Researchers had poured small amounts of liquid hydrogen at a temperature of 14 K (-435degF or -259degC) just above freezing point onto the surface of liquid helium of a temperature just above absolute zero at 4 K (-452degF or -269degC) The liquid hydrogen had formed small solid hydrogen particles which floated on the surface of the helium Scientists planned to use the suspension to create ldquofuturistic atomic fuelsrdquo making it possible to develop rockets with ldquoliftoff weights one-fifth that of todayrsquos [rockets] or with payloads three to four times more massiverdquo In addition the suspension could ldquoreduce or eliminate on-orbit assembly of large space vehiclesrdquo thereby contributing to the exploration of the entire solar system765

763 Matt Pottinger for Reuters ldquoChina Details Missile Test Planned Space Flightrdquo 12 August 1999 764 U S General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Transportation Status of the X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle Programrdquo (report no NIASD-99-176 Washington DC 11 August 1999) httpwwwgaogovarchive1999ns99176pdf (accessed 4 March 2008) 765 NASA Glenn Research Center ldquoRocket Fuels Researchers Suspend Frozen Hydrogen Particles in Heliumrdquo news release 99-65 12 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovcentersglennnewspressrel199999_65html (accessed 25 February 2008)

215


A burst of radiation from Jupiter hit NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft as it gathered data about Jupiterrsquos moon Callisto causing computer malfunctions However NASA reported ldquorecently loaded software automatically restarted command sequences minimizing the loss of science datardquo James K Erickson of NASArsquos JPL Project Manager of the Galileo Program remarked on the highly variable nature of the radiation explaining that previously the spacecraft had entered safe modes during radiation bursts resulting in the loss of data Galileorsquos instruments had only lost about 1 hour of data during the radiation burst successfully recording data about magnetic fields and particles Project scientists expected that the data would help them study the event To emphasize the value of the software Erickson stated ldquoIf we didnrsquot have the automatic restart software we wouldnrsquot be getting any data at the encountersrdquo766

16 August A team of astrophysicists at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center announced that they had found the first direct evidence of a black hole pulling in matter Using the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics an x-ray satellite belonging to Japan and the United States and launched in 1993 the team observed superheated gas in the accretion disc of the black hole Previously scientists had only ldquoseenrdquo the phenomenon by observing these accretion discs or ldquothe swirling matter circling around as it is being pulled into the black holerdquo However this time the Goddard team had observed a ldquostrange featurerdquo buried in the x-rays that the gas emitted Energy had been redshifted an occurrence described as an ldquoastronomical Doppler effectrdquo because just as the compression of sound waves for example causes the sound of a siren to rise and fall as it passes an observer light stretches as it speeds away from Earth The team observed light that was being stretched⎯redshifted⎯moving at about 65 million miles (105 million kilometers) per hour toward a black hole in galaxy NGC 3516767

Swedish state prosecutors charged Charlie Malm and Joel Soederberg of Stockholm who had broken into NASA computer systems between October and December 1996 with violating Swedenrsquos computer laws and with buying stolen equipment In the trial scheduled for sometime in the fall NASA intended to demonstrate that the pair had ldquocaused NASA great economic lossrdquo Malm and Soederberg had also broken into the computer systems of the US Air Force US Army and US Marines as well as the system of a British Internet company768

19 August NASA announced its selection of three very small satellites each about 16 inches (41 centimeters) across and 8 inches (20 centimeters) high to conduct the Nanosat Constellation Trailblazer mission the fifth mission in NASArsquos New Millennium program NASA had developed the New Millennium program to test technology for future missions with the goal of dramatically reducing the weight size and costs of missions while simultaneously increasing science capabilities NASA scheduled the US$28 million Nanosat Constellation mission to launch in 2003 as a secondary payload on an expendable launch vehicle769

766 Michael A Dornheim ldquoUnexpected Jovian Radiation Hits Galileordquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 151 no 8 (23 August 1999) 42 767 Reuters ldquoEvidence of Super Gravity Reported Backs Black Hole Astronomy Theoryrdquo Washington Times 17 August 1999 768 Susanna Loof for Associated Press ldquoSwedes Charged with US Hackingrdquo 16 August 1999 769 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Miniature Spacecraft To Test Space Technologyrdquo news release 99-95 19 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-095txt (accessed 15 February 2008)

216


24 August NASA announced that it had completed negotiations for a contract worth up to US$173 billion to purchase 73 Space Shuttle reusable solid rocket motors from the Thiokol Propulsion company Each Shuttle flight used two of these motors as the primary component of the Shuttle solid rocket boosters providing 66 million pounds (29 million kilograms) of thrust 714 percent of the thrust needed for liftoff The contract covered the manufacture and delivery of the new motor components through September 2004 as well as postflight review of the last motors flown through 2005770

SPACEHAB Inc the first company to ldquocommercially develop own and operate habitable modules that provide laboratory facilities and logistics re-supply aboard NASArsquos Space Shuttlesrdquo and leading global provider of commercial payload-processing services participated in a Brazilian industry conference Brazsat a Brazilian commercial space company hosted the Third Commercial Space Workshop in Rio de Janeiro on 23 and 24 August North American South American and European industry and government leaders attended the workshop where SPACEHABrsquos Chief Executive Officer Shelley A Harrison delivered one of two keynote addresses Participants at the workshop which had the theme ldquoCommercial Space Technologies and its Benefits in the New Milleniumrdquo presented ldquostate-of-the-art space technologies research spin-offs and applications in areas of microgravity research remote sensing telecommunications satellites distance learning telemedicine and other disciplinesrdquo of human spaceflight771

25 August Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation announced that NASA had selected the company to build two spacecraft for the Space Technology 3 (ST-3) Mission part of NASArsquos New Millenium Program The contract valued at US$50 million covered the development and manufacture of the two spacecraft as well as the integration and testing of completed systems NASA planned for the two spacecraft flying 05 miles (08 kilometers) apart to demonstrate interferometry simulating a single large telescope NASArsquos JPL was responsible for developing the interferometer and formation-flying sensing technologies as well as for managing the mission772

26 August NASA released two initial images from its Chandra X-ray Observatory One image traced ldquothe aftermath of a gigantic stellar explosion in such stunning detailrdquo that scientists believed they had detected evidence of a neutron star or black hole near the center The second image showed ldquoa powerful x-ray jet blasting 200000 light-years into intergalactic space from a distant quasarrdquo

770 NASA ldquoNASA Thiokol Complete $17 Billion Shuttle Motor Agreementrdquo news release c99-c 24 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract1999c99-ctxt (accessed 15 February 2008) 771 SPACEHAB Inc ldquoSPACEHAB Participates in Key Brazilian Industry Conference SPACEHAB CEO Addresses Industry Officials on Essential Space Initiativesrdquo news release 31 August 1999 httpwwwspacehab comnews199999_08_31htm (accessed 3 March 2008) 772 Ball Aerospace amp Technologies Corporation ldquoBATC Wins NASA Contract for Two Spacecraft To Test Space Technologyrdquo news release 25 August 1999 httpwwwballaerospacecompagejsppage=30ampid=36 (accessed 25 February 2008)

217


Chandra was still in its orbital ldquocheck-out and calibration phaserdquo when it captured the images confirming that the observatory was performing up to expectations773

27 August Cosmonauts Viktor M Afanasyev and Sergei V Avdeyev departed Mir with their French colleague Jean-Pierre Haignereacute leaving the station empty for the first time in 13frac12 years On 2 August in preparation for the departure the crew had installed a new computer which provided orientation and docking management systems to keep the station in orbit during the absence of a crew The crew had also installed a ground-controlled backup system which would prevent the station from crashing to Earth if a malfunction occurred on board the station774

30 August Lockheed Martin cleared its Atlas II rocket to resume the 1999 launch schedule after having placed its schedule on hold when a Delta III launch failed in early May Deltarsquos RL10B-2 upper-stage engine was similar to the RL10A-4 used on Atlasrsquos Centaur upper stage The Boeing Company and Pratt amp Whitney had led the investigation of the Delta III launch failure with the support of Lockheed Martin Meanwhile Lockheed Martin Astronautics had formed two panels ldquoto ensure that no aspects of commonality between the RL10 engine versions were overlookedrdquo The Senior Engineering Review Panel and the Senior Management Review Team had addressed potential causes of launch failure identified in the Delta III investigation ruling out those factors that did not apply to Atlas flights When the investigators had determined that ldquoan engine-brazing process that left voids in combustion chamber structural jacket splice jointsrdquo was common to all RL10 engines Lockheed Martin had instituted a new set of inspection and analysis measures for accepting or rejecting each engine Lockheed Martin intended to use the inspection techniques on new production chambers Pratt amp Whitney planned to continue using its standard procedure with its Flight Certification Board certifying each set of RL10 engines for all Atlas missions775

GAO published a report ldquoSpace Station Russian Commitment and Cost Control Problemsrdquo reiterating its previous recommendation to NASA to plan for a scenario in which Russia was unable to fulfill its commitments to the ISS Although the report recognized that NASA was in the process of drafting such a plan GAOrsquos sole recommendation to NASA was to ensure the contingency planrsquos completion before the launch of the Russian-built Service Module776

773 NASA ldquoNASA Unveils First Images from Chandra X-ray Observatoryrdquo news release 99-98 26 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-098txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 774 David Hoffman ldquoCosmonauts Abandon Mir Russian Space Station Faces Demise After 13 Years Aloftrdquo Washington Post 28 August 1999 Andrei Shukshin for Reuters ldquoRussiarsquos Mir Has New Computer in Controlrdquo 2 August 1999 Reuters ldquoRussiarsquos Mir Crew Fit Equipment To Leave Stationrdquo 6 August 1999 775 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martinrsquos Centaur RL10 Engines Cleared for Flightrdquo news release 30 August 1999 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases1999LOCKHEEDMARTINSCENTAURRL10ENGINESCL html (25 February 2008) 776 Jonathan Lipman ldquoGAO Warns NASA About the Russiansrdquo Spacecom 30 August 1999 httpwwwspace comnewsspacestationgao_30html (accessed 9 April 2008) U S General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Station Russian Commitment and Cost Control Problemsrdquo (report no GAONSIAD-99-175 Washington DC August 1999) httpwwwgaogovarchive1999ns99175pdf (accessed 25 February 2008)

218


The Independent Assessment Team on Mission Success which Lockheed Martin had commissioned in May 1999 after a series of Titan IV launch failures met its 1 September deadline reporting its findings and recommendations to Lockheedrsquos senior management Lockheed Martin had tasked the investigating team with assessing program management engineering and manufacturing processes and quality-control procedures within the companyrsquos Space and Strategic Missiles Sector Having discovered problems in accountability quality subcontract and supplier management and cost emphasis the Team recommended that the company develop a ldquofly-out planrdquo for Titan IVrsquos remaining missions improve its quality control and improve its management of suppliers and subcontractors Chairperson of the review panel A Thomas Young remarked that regardless of the problems the team had uncovered the panel had also found ldquoenormous fundamental technical strengthsrdquo throughout the sector as well as ldquohighly capable and dedicatedrdquo staff Young also commented that the new leadership team was ldquooff to a positive startrdquo Vance D Coffman Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer for Lockheed Martin ldquoendorsed the panelrsquos findings and pledged Lockheed Martin to implementing its recommendationsrdquo777

31 August Kazakhstan lifted its ban on launches of Russian Proton rockets after Moscow paid US$270000 in compensation for the 5 July crash of one of the booster rockets and completed an agreed-upon joint investigation The lifting of the ban cleared the way for two Russian Yamal-100 communications satellites to launch aboard a Proton rocket on 6 September Although initially the country had banned all launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome which Russia had rented since the collapse of the Soviet Union Kazakhstan had modified the ban to bar only Proton rocket launches pending a joint investigation of the accident778

SEPTEMBER 1999

3 September NASA announced its decision to ground the entire Space Shuttle fleet while technicians continued detailed inspections of the fleetrsquos wiring During the first month of inspections following the discovery that faulty wiring had caused a short circuit during Columbiarsquos 23 July launch technicians had located dozens of nicked or exposed wires Shuttle managers had decided to extend the inspections to allow technicians to examine additional parts of each Shuttle Technicians had replaced damaged wiring encased some wires in plastic tubing added Teflon wrapping to others and replaced some connectors to protect the wiring systems against future damage Manager of the Space Shuttle Program Ronald D Dittemore explained that the wiring problems ldquoappeared to have been caused by work-related mechanical damagerdquo⎯from being rubbed or stepped on or from having ldquoheavy objects set down on themrdquo The age of the wiring normal wear or vibrations from Shuttle operations did not appear to have caused the damage779

777 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Implements Space Panel Recommendationsrdquo news release 8 September 1999 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases1999LOCKHEEDMARTINIMPLEMENTSSPACE PANELRhtml (accessed 27 February 2008) 778 Russia Today ldquoKazakhstan Ends Russia Proton Rocket Banrdquo 1 September 1999 779 Warren E Leary ldquoShuttle Fleet Is Grounded by Damage to Wiringrdquo New York Times 4 September 1999

219


NASA announced that its new orbiting SeaWinds radar instrument flying aboard the QuikSCAT satellite was successfully tracking Iceberg B10A which had broken off the Thwaites glacier of Antarctica in 1992 drifting into a shipping lane Earlier in 1999 Iceberg B10A had disappeared when conventional methods of tracking sea-surface ice⎯shipsrsquo radar shipping reports optical images from satellites and microwave sensor data⎯were unable to track it David G Long of the SeaWinds science team at Utahrsquos Brigham Young University remarked that although ldquoa ship was dispatched to the icebergrsquos last known position we were unable to find it until we started receiving data from the SeaWinds instrument in Julyrdquo During its first pass over Antarctica SeaWinds had spotted the iceberg and the National Ice Center in Suitland Maryland had confirmed that the iceberg was B10A Scientists had continued to track it as it moved through the Drake Passage and headed northeast between Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula At that time the National Ice Center had issued an iceberg navigation warning to Argentina780

8 September NASA announced that scientists at Ames Research Center (ARC) who were developing an autonomous robot called the Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA) had completed a key test of the robotrsquos components NASA planned to use the robot to support future space missions equipping it with a variety of sensors to monitor environmental conditions inside a spacecraft such as the amounts of oxygen carbon dioxide and other gases in the air the amount of bacterial growth in the environment the air temperature and the air pressure The development of the PSA was the next phase in developing advanced information technologies following the success of the Wireless Network Experiment which NASArsquos ARC had conducted for the International Space Station (ISS) in 1995 Atlantis astronauts had discovered that wireless computer network systems worked well in a space environment during Mission STS-76 when they tested these networks and found that radio signals from wireless computers did not interfere with the electronic equipment of the Shuttle or of Mir The experimentrsquos success had prompted the astronauts to recommend using handheld wireless portable data assistants to support mission operations on the future ISS ARC scientists had taken the idea a step further designing autonomous intelligent robots that would free the astronautsrsquo hands ARC scientists had also designed the PSA to handle routine ldquohousekeeping choresrdquo such as monitoring inventory and performing environmental sensor-calibration checks so that astronauts would have more time to focus on research tasks781

9 September A Russian Soyuz booster launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome 450 miles (724 kilometers) north of Moscow carrying German French and Swedish research devices In selecting the launch location Russia was attempting to increase its use of the Plesetsk launch facility because of its problems continuing to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome Since the collapse of the Soviet Union Russia had rented the Baikonur launch facility from Kazakhstan782

10 September

780 NASA ldquoNew NASA Ocean Radar Watches for Breakup of Giant Icebergrdquo news release 99-102 3 September 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-102txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 781 NASA Ames Research Center ldquoNASA Developing Autonomous Robot for Future Space Missionsrdquo news release 99-53AR 8 September 1999 782 Reuters ldquoRussian Rocket Blasts Off from Plesetsk Cosmodromerdquo 9 September 1999

220


NASArsquos Inspector General Roberta L Gross published findings and recommendations on behalf of NASArsquos Office of Inspector General regarding Vice President Albert A Gore Jrrsquos proposed Triana satellite project named for Rodrigo de Triana the sailor on Christopher Columbusrsquos 1492 voyage who had first spotted North America The Triana project would call on NASA to provide ldquocontinuous satellite-generated images of the Earth for posting on the Internetrdquo Gross suggested that it was ldquoill-advised for the financially strapped [A]gency to fund a new system to collect pictures of Earth when many imagesrdquo were already widely available Gross said the Triana project would cost four times as much as the Vice Presidentrsquos US$50 million estimate noting that NASA had already spent US$41 million on the project even though Congress had not yet endorsed it She criticized NASA for ldquopressing forward with the project without fully assessing the scientific value of photographing the Earthrdquo NASA had scheduled the satellite for launch aboard a Space Shuttle in December 2000783

20 September AlliedSignal Technical Services based in Columbia Maryland named as its president former astronaut and Space Shuttle Program Office executive James C Adamson who had logged 334 hours in orbit during Missions STS-28 and STS-43 AlliedSignal Technical Services had a staff of 1800 in Maryland and responsibility for oversight of most of the ldquospacecraft ground and flight control at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt [Maryland]rdquo In accepting the appointment Adamson was leaving his position as Chief Operating Officer of United Space Alliance (USA) which operated the Shuttle program for NASA784

Lockheed Martin announced a ldquosweeping reorganizationrdquo of key leadership positions in response to recommendations of the review panel chaired by A Thomas Young The Young Panel had urged the company to make structural changes to correct quality-control problems at Astronautics the unit responsible for Atlas Titan and Athena rocket development In response to the panelrsquos recommendation to divide the two tasks of product assurance and mission success Astronautics President G Thomas Marsh appointed John P Mari as Vice President of Product Assurance and Roman Matherne as Vice President for Mission Success Marsh named John Parker President of the former Mission Success and Product Assurance Section to head the operations post in Lockheed Martinrsquos VentureStar TM Program which the company hoped to develop into a future reusable launch vehicle with the potential to replace the Space Shuttle Marsh appointed Joel S Porter as Vice President for Business Development and Advanced Programs for Astronautics succeeding Matthew B Foster who resigned Other changes at Astronautics included the appointment of Claude McAnally as Vice President of Operations the appointment of Grover W Hall Jr as Vice President of Technical Operations and the separation of Technical Operations from Manufacturing Operations to better delineate responsibility and accountability according to the recommendations of the Young Panel Lockheed tasked Gareth D Flora under Marshrsquos supervision with developing managing and improving subcontract management In addition Flora became responsible for ensuring that the company properly

783 NASA Office of Inspector General ldquoAssessment of the Triana Missionrdquo (final report no G-99-013 Washington DC 10 September 1999) httpoignasagovoldinspections_assessmentsg-99-013pdf (accessed 3 March 2008) Steve Lash ldquoGorersquos Pet Project Not Worth Its Cost NASA Auditor Saysrdquo Houston Chronicle 17 September 1999 784 Greg Schneider ldquoAlliedSignal Technical Gets a New President Adamson Is Former Astronaut Shuttle Executive Engineerrdquo Baltimore Sun (MD) 21 September 1999 NASA Johnson Space Center ldquoBiographical Data James C Adamsonrdquo httpwwwjscnasagovBioshtmlbiosadamson-jchtml (accessed 28 October 2008)

221


implemented the recommendations of the investigating team as well as those of a separate US Air Force review of the aerospace industry785

NASA announced the establishment of a review panel to examine the overall safety of Shuttle maintenance and refurbishment practices following the discovery of maintenance-related damage to the Shuttle fleetrsquos electrical wiring NASA had named Director of ARC Henry McDonald to chair the panel NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight Joseph H Rothenberg indicated that the other team members not yet named would include top maintenance experts from NASA the military the commercial aerospace industry and the commercial aircraft industry NASA required the team to assess NASArsquos standard practices and recommend improvements with preliminary findings due in October786

21 September Spacecom an Internet site devoted to covering the news and science of space appointed Sally K Ride as its President Lou Dobbs had begun Spacecom in July 1999 after resigning as president of CNNrsquos Financial News Ride the first American woman in space had worked closely with Dobbs as he launched the site The position was her ldquofirst foray into the cyberspace after a long career in space research policy and education787

23 September Former astronauts Michael J McCulley Vice President and Deputy Program Manager for USA and William F Readdy NASArsquos Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight testified before the US House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics regarding wiring damage found in Space Shuttles Columbia Discovery Endeavour and Atlantis In its first official report since discovering that frayed wires had caused the short circuit 5 seconds into Columbiarsquos launch on 23 July NASA informed committee members that wiring inspections and maintenance had cost US$350000 NASA had not yet calculated the cost of the ongoing safety ldquostand downrdquo NASA also indicated that it did not intend to pay USA the US$25 million the company would have earned if it had punctually delivered the next Shuttle scheduled for launch McCulley had indicated that his company accepted ldquofull responsibility for wiring damagerdquo found in all four Shuttles despite the fact that the wiring problems might have stemmed from maintenance conducted before USA took over operational responsibility Committee members expressed their concern that NASA planned to request more money for the repairs but Readdy replied that such a scenario was unlikely because USA would be responsible for making the repairs Committee members also were worried about whether Shuttle launches and flights could maintain adequate safety levels when the Shuttle team had only a few opportunities to practice their skills NASA Associate Administrator for Safety and Mission Assurance Frederick D Gregory responded that simulation launches in combination with a flight rate of two launches per year were sufficient to keep a launch teamrsquos skills sharp788

785 Jeffrey Leib ldquoLockheed Replaces Key Staff in Astronautics Unitrdquo Denver Post (CO) 21 September 1999 786 NASA ldquoNASA Forms Independent Industry-Government Team To Review Shuttle Maintenance and Refurbishment Practicesrdquo news release 99-104 20 September 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-104txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 787 Andrea Orr for Reuters ldquoSpacecom Names Space Woman as Company Presidentrdquo 21 September 1999 788 Larry Wheeler ldquoShuttle Wiring Inspections Maintenance Cost $350000rdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 24 September 1999 Tamara Lytle ldquoNASA Officials Bring Wiring Problems to House Panelrsquos Attentionrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 24 September 1999

222


NASA scientists lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft as it entered its Martian orbit and disappeared behind the planet a little less than a year after the launch of its Mars mission in December 1998 Mars Surveyor Project Manager John B McNamee said that the orbit-insertion burn a 16-minute-long burn to slow the spacecraft down as it enters orbit had begun on time The team of NASA scientists observed 5 minutes of the burn before the craft went behind Mars At that point the craft stopped communicating Communication did not resume at the time the team expected the craft to reappear from the far side of the planet McNamee reported that the latest navigation results showed that the craft had entered its orbit lower than his team had planned indicating that NASArsquos navigation predictions at the tracking station may have been incorrect Carl B Pilcher Science Director for Solar System Exploration at NASA Headquarters commented that although losing the spacecraft was very serious the loss was ldquonot devastating to the Mars Surveyor Program as a wholerdquo because the mission of Mars Polar Lander scheduled to arrive at Mars two months after Mars Climate Orbiter was independent of that of Orbiter789

25 September Space Shuttle Columbia the oldest of NASArsquos four orbiters landed at a US Air Force plant in California for a ldquolong-overdue tune-uprdquo The orbiterrsquos overhaul expected to last until July 2000 came months late because of delays related to the launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory Columbia astronauts had deployed Chandra during a mission in July 1999 The inspection and overhaul was Columbiarsquos fourth since entering service in 1981790

28 September NASA announced that after just two months in space the Chandra X-ray Observatory had taken ldquoa stunning image of the Crab Nebulardquo revealing for the first time ldquoa brilliant ring about the nebularsquos heartrdquo The Crab Nebula located 6000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus is the remnant of a star that Chinese astronomers had observed exploding in 1054 AD when it ldquoappeared suddenly and remained visible for weeks even during daytimerdquo Astronomers had used ldquovirtually every astronomical instrumentrdquo to study the Crabrsquos area of the sky discovering that unlocking its mysteries led to ldquoinsight after insightrdquo into how the universe works Astronomers had linked the origin of pulsars to supernovas and confirmed the cosmic origin of chemical elements through the study of the ldquoexpanding cloud of filamentsrdquo in the Crab The new image showed the Crab pulsar ldquoaccelerating particles up to the speed of light and flinging them out into interstellar space at an incredible raterdquo Using Chandrarsquos ldquoexceptional resolutionrdquo scientists had traced the jet all the way to the neutron star where the ring pattern clearly appeared Previously Hubble Space Telescope images had revealed ldquomoving knots and wisps around the neutron starrdquo and other x-ray images had shown the outer portions of the jet only hinting at the ring structure791

789 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoNASArsquos Mars Climate Orbiter Believed To Be Lostrdquo news release 23 September 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99mcolosthtml (accessed 3 March 2008) Reuters ldquoNASA Loses Contact with Mars Orbiterrdquo 23 September 1999 790 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Tuneuprdquo 25 September 1999 791 NASA ldquoChandra Discovers X-ray Ring Around Cosmic Powerhouse in Crab Nebulardquo news release 99-109 28 September 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-109txt (accessed 15 February 2008) Paul Hoversten ldquoPhotos Get to the Source of Pulsarrdquo USA Today 29 September 1999

223


30 September NASA released preliminary findings of an internal peer review conducted at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) after the apparent loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft as it entered its orbit on 23 September The results of the review indicated that ldquoa failure to recognize and correct an error in a transfer of information between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team in Colorado and the mission navigation team in California led to the loss of the spacecraftrdquo The peer review discovered that ldquoone team had used English units while the other used metric units for a key spacecraft operationrdquo NASArsquos systems engineers had failed to detect the error In addition to the JPL committee NASA had formed a separate review committee of experts from within and outside of JPL and planned to establish an independent failure-review board shortly792

NASA announced that new findings from the Galileo spacecraft indicated the presence of sulfuric acid on the frozen surface of Jupiterrsquos moon Europa Sulfuric acid is a corrosive chemical found in car batteries Robert W Carlson of NASArsquos JPL the lead author of a paper published in the journal Science was Principal Investigator for Galileorsquos Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer which located the chemical The new findings corroborated Galileorsquos earlier spectrometer data analyses suggesting the presence of sulfate salts on Europa Despite indications that a liquid ocean may exist under Europarsquos crust Carlson had initially thought the presence of sulfuric acid would end debate over whether it was possible for Europa to contain biological life However his colleague Kenneth H Nealson suggested the opposite remarking that sulfur and sulfuric acid are oxidants⎯energy sources known to us on Earth Therefore Nealson proposed that the findings should encourage scientists to search for ldquoany possible links between the sulfur oxidants on Europarsquos surface and natural fuels produced from Europarsquos hot interiorrdquo793

OCTOBER 1999

1 October V Philip Rasmussen Jr Head of the Department of Plants Soils and Biometeorology at Utah State University began work as NASArsquos first and only agricultural extension agent with the task of disseminating to American farmers satellite data that could increase their productivity In 1917 Congress had established the US Department of Agriculturersquos Cooperative Extension Service operating out of land-grant universities and serving every county in the country Through this program the federal government had made research-based agricultural information available to the public in exchange for federal resource support at the universities Initially Cooperative Extension Service agents had focused on farm and ranch questions but the program had evolved to assist home gardeners greenhouse users and businesses as well After studying the land-grant university system NASA had decided to create a space-grant consortium system to provide the public with access to space science such as the sciences of remote sensing and crop management These scientific fields had developed significantly since the 1970s when

792 NASA ldquoMars Climate Orbiter Team Finds Likely Cause of Lossrdquo news release 99-113 30 September 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-113txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 793 NASA ldquoBattery Acid Chemical Found on Jupiterrsquos Moon Europardquo news release 99-112 30 September 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-112txt (accessed 15 February 2008) R W Carlson et al ldquoSulfuric Acid on Europa and the Radiolytic Sulfur Cyclerdquo Science 286 no 5437 (1 October 1999) 97ndash99

224


Rasmussen had used Landsat data strategically to predict Russian crop yields At that time the US government was not using Landsat data to assist American farmers but under NASArsquos new space-grant program Rasmussenrsquos primary task would be to make such satellite data available through the existing county extension service so that county agents could teach farmers how to use the data to improve crop yield Rasmussen described his extension work⎯using the global positioning satellite (GPS) program in tandem with the geographic information system⎯as ldquoprecision agriculturerdquo because farmers could use the data to make informed adjustments concerning methods of watering and fertilizing fields of various soil types794

The Perseus B research aircraft built by Aurora Flight Sciences Inc sustained moderate damage when it crashed on a California highway during a flight from NASArsquos Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) in Edwards California The craft was a ldquodevelopmental vehicle designed to operate at high altitudes for extended periods on scientific sampling missionsrdquo one of several aircraft that NASA was evaluating as part of its Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology program Controllers could operate the craft remotely from a ground station or the Perseus B could navigate autonomously along a preprogrammed flight path At the time of the accident ground-based Aurora Flight Sciences mission controllers at Edwards Air Force Base were guiding the Perseus B DFRC flight safety officials with assistance from Aurora Flight Sciences operations staff formed an accident investigation team to determine the exact cause of the crash795

NASA announced that scientists studying high-resolution images from Mars Global Surveyor had detected no evidence that ocean shorelines once existed on Mars Previously researchers had interpreted features in images from NASArsquos Viking missions of the 1970s as remnants of ancient coastlines However Surveyor images taken in 1998 with a resolution 5 to 10 times sharper than images that Viking had produced had not provided evidence that water in a coastal environment had formed those features Michael C Malin of Malin Space Science Systems Principal Investigator for the Mars Orbiter Camera aboard Surveyor remarked that although scientists could not rule out the presence of oceans on Mars at one time the evidence in the new images appeared to undermine the ldquofoundation for the lsquoocean hypothesisrsquo developed in the 1980s on the basis of suspected shorelinesrdquo Nevertheless Malin acknowledged ldquosignificant other evidence of water on Mars in the pastrdquo suggesting that as the Mars Orbiter Camera continued to acquire new high-resolution images scientists might have new clues to the role of water in the evolution of Mars796

2 October The US Department of Defense (DOD) successfully conducted the first of a series of tests of a proposed missile defense system An unarmed Minuteman missile carrying a dummy warhead and decoy balloon launched over the Pacific Ocean from Vandenberg Air Force Base 20 minutes later an Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle a 55-inch-long (14-meter-long) 120-pound (544-kilogram) device built by Raytheon Corporation launched aboard a booster rocket from the Marshall Islands The two missiles collided 10 minutes later 3000 miles (4800 kilometers)

794 Joe Bauman ldquoNASA Agent Tackles Down-to-Earth Workrdquo Deseret News (Salt Lake City UT) 23 October 1999 795 NASA ldquoPerseus B Damaged in Crash on California Highwayrdquo news release 99-115 1 October 1999 796 NASA ldquoNew Mars Images No Evidence of Ancient Ocean Shorelinesrdquo news release 99-114 1 October 1999

225


from California and 140 miles (225 kilometers) above the ocean According to the CIA when DOD conducted the test North Korea Iran and Syria were developing long-range missiles that could hit the United States797

4 October NASA announced its selection of three graduate students to receive Michelson fellowships offered by NASArsquos Origins Program and its Space Interferometry Mission NASA awarded a fellowship to Philip M Hinz of the University of Arizona for his work building a new type of nulling interferometer designed to null the glare from nearby stars thereby enabling scientists to observe in infrared wavelengths dust and giant planets orbiting the stars NASA chose Erin M Sabatke also of the University of Arizona to work on creating models of large stretched flat plastic membranes for collecting light from several telescopes placed on separate spacecraft flying in formation Sabatke planned to explore the use of this technique to photograph planets around other stars NASA selected Benjamin F Lane a student at California Institute of Technology for his work advancing the ldquotechnique of using two stars with a narrow angle separating them to measure relative motion of one with respect to the other utilizing a ground-based interferometerrdquo NASA had named the fellowship program for the first American to win a Nobel Prize in physics Albert Michelson known as the father of interferometry Interferometry is a technique of combing and processing light from multiple telescopes to obtain a clear image of distant objects The fellowship covered tuition a student stipend and a small budget for travel and other research expenses for three years of graduate research at the studentrsquos host institution798

Vladimir Petrovsky a member of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences condemned the United Statesrsquo 2 October testing of its proposed missile defense system noting that testing could ldquoaggravate relations not only between the United States and the Asian-Pacific region but also between Japan⎯a US ally in the development of the system⎯and other countriesrdquo Russia had refused to amend the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty which would have permitted the United States to develop a full-fledged missile defense system Preventing either country from developing missile defense systems the Cold Warndashera treaty acted as a deterrent by keeping both the Soviet Union and the United States vulnerable to attack Officials in Washington DC stated that DOD was testing a missile defense system intended to destroy lone missiles launched by rogue states or terrorists not a system meant to protect against a multi-missile attack from a major nuclear power799

5 October Analyzing data from NASArsquos Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft researchers proved for the first time that smoke from forest fires inhibits rainfall TRMM a mission of the United States and Japan and part of NASArsquos Earth Science Enterprise had been producing continuous data since December 1997 Daniel Rosenfeld of the Institute of Earth Sciences at Hebrew University in Jerusalem had studied the data finding that clouds polluted with heavy smoke significantly inhibit warm rain processes When smoke pollutes them cloud

797 Associated Press ldquoMissile Test Sparks Russian Gripesrdquo 4 October 1999 798 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoThree Planet-Hunters Earn NASArsquos Michelson Fellowshipsrdquo news release 99-086 4 October 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99fellowshipshtml (accessed 7 March 2008) 799 Associated Press ldquoMissile Testrdquo

226


tops must ldquogrow considerably above the freezing levelrdquo to produce rain through a different process Rosenfeld remarked that the results of his research had validated earlier studies which showed that urban air pollution inhibits rainfall Christian D Kummerow a TRMM scientist at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) commented that such findings were ldquomaking the first inroads into the difficult problem of understanding humanityrsquos impacts on global precipitationrdquo800

6 October NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin named Arthur G Stephenson Director of NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville Alabama to head the Mars Climate Orbiter Mission Failure Investigation Board Mars Climate Orbiter had disappeared on 23 September as it entered orbit around Mars Goldin tasked the board with independently reviewing all aspects of the missionrsquos failure to verify whether it had been the result of an inadequacy in NASArsquos interplanetary navigation systems Preliminary findings from an internal peer review at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory indicated that ldquoa failure to recognize and correct an error in a transfer of information between the spacecraft team in Colorado and the mission navigation team in Californiardquo had caused the loss of the spacecraft Goldin instructed the board to report its initial findings by 3 November801

NASA researchers at MSFC unveiled an experimental 50-foot (15-meter) track using magnetic levitation (maglev) technology to propel a 30-pound (136-kilogram) model of a spacecraft at a speed of 60 miles (97 kilometers) per hour in 05 seconds MSFC researchers had sought to reduce launch costs as well as to reduce space-vehicle size with the development of a maglev launch-assist system The maglev track was theoretically capable of propelling and releasing a spacecraft at 600 miles (965 kilometers) per hour wing design would then lift the craft and ldquogive it a kick startrdquo before the ignition of the rocketrsquos engines MSFC Manager of Launch Technologies Sherry Buschmann commented that the researchers believed the use of maglev technology could cut launch vehicle size by 20 percent NASArsquos industry partner in the experimental technology was PRT Advanced Maglev Systems Inc of Park Forest Illinois802

NASA released new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of the cores of spiral galaxies like the Milky Way and astronomers studying the images for clues about galactic development discussed their findings at a briefing at NASA Headquarters Two complementary surveys by independent research teams had concluded that the Hubble images confirmed the evolutionary link between a disc-like cloud of dust and gas at the center of a galaxy and a bulge of millions of stars at the center of the disc-like cloud The central bulge stabilizes a galaxyrsquos development controls the birth of stars in the galaxyrsquos core and ldquoholds secrets as to how and when a galaxy formedrdquo Reynier F Peletier of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom confirmed that central bulges of ldquomore tightly wound spiralsrdquo formed at approximately the same time in the early universe C Marcello Carollo of Columbia University who had led a team studying

800 NASA ldquoSpacecraft Provides First Direct Evidence Smoke in the Atmosphere Inhibits Rainfallrdquo news release 99-110 5 October 1999 801 NASA ldquoHead of Mars Climate Orbiter Investigation Board Namedrdquo news release 99-117 6 October 1999 802 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center ldquoNew NASA Track Races Toward Cheaper Trips to Spacerdquo news release 99-260 4 October 1999 Kent Faulk ldquoNASA Spacecraft Float to Future Researchers Test Levitation as Way To Boost Launchesrdquo Birmingham News (AL) 7 October 1999

227


galaxies with small bulges and ldquobar-like structures that bisect the nucleusrdquo had discovered that such galaxies developed more recently Both teams had used HSTrsquos visible-light and infrared cameras to determine the starsrsquo true colors a measure of the age of the stars inside the galaxiesrsquo

803core

7 October A Delta II rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Florida carrying a NAVSTAR Block 2R GPS satellite the third in a new series of GPS spacecraft Lockheed Martin was under contract with the US Air Force to launch 21 GPS craft The NAVSTAR Block 2R military navigational satellite became the 28th operational spacecraft in the GPS constellation to replace an older satellite in the network after completing a one-month test period The US Air Force had originally planned to launch the replacement craft in May 1999 but after a rainstorm had damaged the satellite while it was sitting on the launchpad the Air Force had returned it to Lockheed Martin Missile and Space for repairs Two hurricanes a tropical storm and other rainstorms had caused additional weather delays preventing the launch of an alternate replacement satellite804

10 October NASArsquos Galileo probe survived intense radiation emanating from Jupiter during a ldquodo-or-die effortrdquo when the spacecraft came within 380 miles (611 kilometers) of Jupiterrsquos volcanic moon Io The craft experienced computer problems when passing through the densest part of Jupiterrsquos radiation belt but 1 hour after Galileorsquos closest encounter with Io all of its systems had resumed normal functioning Duane Bindschadler Manager of Science Operations for the Galileo Program explained that close-up study of Io could help scientists learn about the behavior of volcanoes thereby helping them predict the behavior of volcanoes on Earth However because Jupiterrsquos radiation field could damage or destroy the spacecraft NASA had planned the close flyby for the end of the two-year extended mission following Galileorsquos original two-year mission805

12 October Space Imaging Inc a private company owned by Lockheed Martin and based in Thornton Colorado released a photograph taken from space of the intersection of 14th Street NW and Constitution Avenue in Washington DC President William J Clinton had approved the development of private space cameras in 1994 but Space Imaging had been the first company to successfully build and launch a spacecraft with such a camera launching its Eastman Kodakndash built camera on 24 September and testing it on 30 September The commercial image rivaled the products of military spy technology showing objects as small as 3 feet (09 meter) wide Space Imagingrsquos test image showed the Washington Monument part of the Ellipse and the buildings of the US Department of Commerce and the Museum of American History806

803 NASA ldquoStarry Bulges Yield Secrets to Galaxy Growthrdquo news release 99-107 6 October 1999 Deborah Zabarenko for Reuters ldquoHubble Tackles Questions About Cosmic Bulgesrdquo 6 October 1999 804 Irene Brown ldquoDelta Rocket Soars into Spacerdquo Spacecom 7 October 1999 805 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoGalileo Succeeds in Historic Flyby of Jupiterrsquos Volcanic Moonrdquo news release 11 October 1999 Reuters ldquoGalileo Probe Risks Ruin for a Closer Look at Iordquo Washington Post 12 October 1999 806 William J Broad ldquoGiant Leap for Private Industry Spies in Spacerdquo New York Times 13 October 1999

228


13 October At the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Societyrsquos Division for Planetary Sciences research group leaders from the University of Texas at Austin announced that scientists had sifted through the data from Earth-based observatories and from spacecraft such as the HST obtained from the controlled crash of NASArsquos Lunar Prospector into a crater near the south pole of the Moon on 31 July The researchers reported that they had identified ldquono observable signature of waterrdquo in the Moonrsquos crater The announcement confirmed the conclusion reached at the time of the crash The Lunar Prospector spacecraft had launched on 6 January 1998 In March 1998 mission scientists had announced the first tentative findings of the presence of water ice on both of the Moonrsquos poles The controlled crash proposed by engineers and astronomers at the University of Texas was ldquoa low-budget attempt to wring one last bit of productivity from the low-costrdquo mission NASA had accepted the proposal because of the successful peer review of the idea and because the craftrsquos useful life was nearing its end807

14 October NASA announced its selection of the next two missions of its Medium-Class Explorer (MIDEX) Program The first mission headed by Neil Gehrels of NASArsquos GSFC and planned for launch in 2003 was the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer a three-telescope space observatory designed with the ldquounique ability to rotate in orbit and point its gamma-ray telescope x-ray telescope and ultravioletoptical telescope at gamma-ray bursts [GRBs] within minutes of the burstrsquos first appearancerdquo The second mission led by Kenneth J Johnston of the US Naval Observatory was the Full-Sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer (FAME) scheduled to launch in 2004 a space telescope designed to ldquoobtain highly precise position and brightness measurements of 40 million starsrdquo From a group of five missions selected in January 1999 NASA had chosen these two missions for detailed four-month feasibility studies examining cost management and technical plans such as small business involvement and educational outreach NASA had originally received 31 full proposals in August 1998 Associate Administrator for Space Science Edward J Weiler remarked that the selection of the two missions had been the most difficult he had made during his 21 years at NASA because over the years the space science community had been submitting to NASA a steadily increasing number of first-class concepts for smaller missions808

Two satellites the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS-1) sometimes called ZY-1 in Chinese reports and the Brazilian Saci-1 satellite launched atop a Chinese Long March 3B rocket from Taiyuan Launch Center in central China Brazil and China had jointly financed the 1500-kilogram (3307-pound) CBERS-1 which carried three high-resolution cameras for monitoring environmental and vegetation conditions in Brazil and China as well as in other unspecified locations Brazil had designed the 60-kilogram (132-pound) Saci-1 microsatellite to monitor cosmic rays the magnetic field and plasma Shortly after launch communications with the craft failed809

807 NASA ldquoNo Water Ice Detected from Lunar Prospector Impactrdquo news release 99-119 13 October 1999 Associated Press ldquoCraftrsquos Crash into Moon Finds No Waterrdquo Los Angeles Times 13 October 1999 808 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Missions To Search for Planetary Systems and Observe Cosmic Explosionsrdquo news release 99-120 14 October 1999 809 Spacewarn Bulletin no 552 1 November 1999 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx552html (accessed 6 August 2008)

229


18 October NASA released its newest and most accurate map of the continent of Antarctica created from data that the Canadian Space Agencyrsquos (CSArsquos) RADARSAT-1 satellite had collected over an 18-day period during the spring of 1997 Vexel Corporation of Boulder Colorado had developed software to generate a mosaic of the continent from ldquomany small images made from different angles and orientations of the satelliterdquo Project officials and scientists remarked that the most important discoveries resulting from the radar images concerned the network of ice streams the new satellite data revealed that the streams traveled ldquoenormous distances at speeds up to 3000 feet (914 meters) per year⎯100 times faster than the flow of surrounding icerdquo The CSA had begun planning RADARSAT in 1980 because of Canadarsquos interest in using a high-resolution radar satellite to monitor shipping channels in the Arctic NASArsquos negotiations with the CSA had resulted in an agreement NASA would launch the satellite and provide software and data analysis in exchange for access to some of the data the satellite produced Additionally the CSA would make at least two imaging scans of Antarctica RADARSAT had launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 4 November 1995 but until 1997 Canadian controllers had not completed a difficult rotation of the satellite necessary to place Antarctica in full view Once correctly oriented RADARSAT had been able to complete the imaging in 18 days because it could collect data anytime of the day or night and in any weather The last satellite map of Antarctica had used images from five different satellites spanning the years 1980 to 1994810

20 October President William J Clinton signed into law the FY 2000 appropriations bill for the Department of Veterans Administration Housing and Urban Development and Other Agencies which included the US$1365 billion NASA budget Congress had approved NASArsquos budget on 7 October In keeping with the Presidentrsquos original request the final appropriation included full funding for the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle program US$80 million for Spaceliner 100 an MSFC program to find new propulsion technology US$25 million for Shuttle upgrades US$5 million for the National Center for Space Research and Technology a joint venture including MSFC the University of Alabama in Huntsville and private industry and US$3 million to continue research into tether-guided satellites The US House of Representativesrsquo version of the bill had cut US$900 million from NASArsquos funding but the US Senate had approved a budget equal to NASArsquos FY 1999 budget US$136 billion House Republicans had voted to eliminate funding for Triana a controversial Earth-observing satellite first envisioned by Vice President Albert A Gore Jr but the House and Senate conference committee had voted on a compromise providing for the National Academy of Sciences to review the program and forbidding NASA from launching Triana until 1 January 2001811

21 October British astronomers Martin J Ward of the University of Leicester and Keith Mason of Mullard Space Laboratory at University College London announced that NASA had selected them to participate in its Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer mission NASArsquos mission called for the two

810 NASA ldquoNASA Unveils New Most Accurate Map of Antarctic Continentrdquo news release 99-122 18 October 1999 Malcolm W Browne ldquoUnder Antarctica Clues to an Icecaprsquos Fate Radar Uncovers a Network of Ice Streams Larger and Faster than Expected and More Ominousrdquo New York Times 26 October 1999 811 Brett Davis ldquoCongress Approves Full NASA Budgetrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 8 October 1999 Stephen Koff and Tom Diemer ldquoCleveland NASA Unit CMHA Get Fundingrdquo Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH) 21 October 1999

230


scientists to use a pair of specialized telescopes one measuring ultraviolet and visible light and the other measuring x-ray light to study GRBs the ldquounpredictable powerful explosions in space that sometimes last less than one secondrdquo A collaboration of Italian British and US scientists the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer was one of NASArsquos medium-class explorer missions scheduled for launch in 2003812

Brazilian space officials having lost contact with their countryrsquos Saci-1 satellite days after its launch asked NASA to help them rescue the US$46 million satellite Saci-1 had launched on 14 October from China along with another satellite the CBERS-1 which the two countries had built jointly Brazil asked NASA to photograph the satellite check its condition and devise a plan for its recovery President of the Brazilian Space Agency Luis Meira Filho remarked that Brazil had not given ldquothe satellite up for lostrdquo because space officials knew its location The CBERS-1 satellite was functioning normally and had returned images of Brazil813

22 October NASA released an image of Jupiterrsquos volcanic moon Io captured at the closest range ever accomplished The image which NASArsquos spacecraft Galileo took during a flyby of the moon on 10 October showed a lava field near the center of an erupting volcano named Pillan with visible new lava flows from its volcanic center To capture most of the new images of Io Galileo had used a fast camera mode in which the camera preprocesses the image averaging the brightness in its adjacent parts However Iorsquos radiation had disrupted the process degrading the quality of the images Radiation had not affected images including the newly released image of Pillan taken in other camera modes Galileo Project Manager James K Erickson remarked that Galileo would not use the fast camera mode during the next Io flyby814

27 October New York Governor George E Pataki awarded NASA astronaut Eileen M Collins of Elmira New York the statersquos highest award the Jackie Robinson Empire State Freedom Medal for her achievement as the first female Space Shuttle Commander Collins had been Commander of the historic Mission STS-93 During that mission she and her crew had deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory the heaviest largest and most powerful x-ray telescope ever launched into space Governor Pataki described Collins as ldquoa bold pioneer of the reaches of spacerdquo and remarked that ldquoher talent intelligence and courage set an example that every woman and every man can hope to duplicate in their livesrdquo Every year New York presents the Empire State Freedom Medal established in 1997 to ldquothose who best demonstrate the qualities of determination dignity fairness and honor that were exemplified by Jackie Robinson who broke major league baseballrsquos color barrierrdquo815

A Russian Proton rocket carrying a communications satellite manufactured by Lockheed Martin exploded 6 minutes after launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan the second

812 Reuters ldquoBritish Scientists Selected for New NASA Projectrdquo 21 October 1999 813 Reuters ldquoBrazil Asks NASA Help To Rescue Lost Satelliterdquo 21 October 1999 814 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoClosest-Ever Picture of Volcanic Moon Io Releasedrdquo news release 22 October 1999 815 NASA ldquoFirst Female Shuttle Commander Eileen Collins Receives Jackie Robinson Medalrdquo news release 99shy125 27 October 1999

231


failure of a Proton rocket in three months The Russian Space Agency formed a commission to investigate the crash Kazakhstan had temporarily banned Proton launches from Baikonur following a launch failure on 5 July but Proton rockets had launched from the facility successfully on 6 and 26 September816

28 October Kazakhstan imposed a new ban on Russian launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome following the previous dayrsquos crash of a Proton booster rocket which had malfunctioned shortly after launch Without naming a figure Kazakhstan announced that it would require Russia to pay compensation in an amount significantly higher than the fee that Kazakhstan had charged Russia after the 5 July Proton crash In addition the Kazakhstan government formed a special commission headed by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Pavlov to investigate the accident817

NOVEMBER 1999

2 November NASA announced that Administrator Daniel S Goldin would present Simon Ramo and Bernard A Schriever with NASArsquos Distinguished Public Service Medal on 5 November at the start of a daylong conference NASA the US Air Force Space Command the National Air and Space Museum the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University and the National Space Society were cosponsoring the conference ldquoDeveloping US Launch Capability The Role of Civil-Military Cooperationrdquo The award recognized the leadership of Ramo and Schriever during the early years of the US space program Ramo had been the chief scientist and leading civilian in the Air Force program to build the first US intercontinental ballistic missile system His work had fostered cooperation between the US Air Force and aeronautics industry the necessary foundation of the space program Schriever had pioneered the development of the first ballistic missile for the United States the resulting rocket technology had led to NASArsquos successes in its early human spaceflight programs818

3 November A large section of the outer wall of one of the Lockheed Martin X-33 rocket planersquos two liquid hydrogen fuel tanks separated 2 hours after completing pressure and structural tests at NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center Lockheed intended the X-33 prototype to lead to the development of its VentureStar TM Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) and NASA planned to replace its fleet of Space Shuttles with a fleet of Lockheedrsquos VentureStar TM RLVs after 2012 The latest problem potentially delayed the X-33rsquos first test flight at least an additional six months essentially guaranteeing that Lockheed Martin would be unable to produce an operational VentureStar TM

vehicle by 2004 NASA had ldquoplaced a huge wagerrdquo on the VentureStar TM committing US$941 million to the X-33 program which had been threatened by technical problems and cost overruns for more than a year US General Accounting Office (GAO) examiners had criticized the

816 Miles OrsquoBrien ldquoRussian Rocket Explodes After Liftoff Incident Likely To Delay International Space Stationrdquo CNNcom 27 October 1999 httpwwwcnncomTECHspace991027protonexplodes (accessed 10 April 2008) 817 United Press International ldquoKazakhstan Bans Russian Space Launchesrdquo 28 October 1999 818 NASA ldquoNASA Honors Missile Pioneers at Launch Vehicle Conferencerdquo news release N99-56 2 November 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewsnote2edt1999n99-056txt (accessed 12 March 2008)

232


project for its rising costs warning that ldquodelays in the prototype would harm NASArsquos plans for a full-scale reusable vehiclerdquo819

GAO reported that NASA had ldquoinadvertently exported radiation-hardened microcircuit optical coupler parts to Russiardquo relying on the manufacturerrsquos statement that the so-called rad-hard parts were not on the US Department of Statersquos Munitions List and that therefore NASA was not required to obtain an export license GAO also reported that NASA was ldquopreparing to export sensitive encryption technology to Japan and Europerdquo technology transfers related to building the International Space Station (ISS) Under international agreements related to the space station NASA was obligated to deliver disclose or transfer certain technology data and commodities to other nations involved in building the ISS GAO had investigated NASArsquos export-control procedures after members of Congress expressed concern about safeguards to protect technology and information exported to support the ISS GAO evaluatorsrsquo conclusions were similar to those of NASArsquos Inspector General who had reported earlier that NASArsquos export-control procedures were likely inadequate for the technology exchanges necessary under the ISS program820

5 November NASA announced that its scientists had developed a new Digital Tectonic Activity Map (DTAM) of the Earth pinpointing geologically and volcanically active features of the planet over the last 1 million years Whereas most global geological maps were ldquoplate mapsrdquo emphasizing the definition of plate boundaries of the planetrsquos crust and current seismic or volcanic activity the new tectonic map portrayed the broad architecture of Earthrsquos crust identifying all current and past geological activity NASA had primarily generated the DTAM using publicly available data and commercial software but had also used spacecraft data including Landsat images hand-held astronaut photography and radar altimetry of sea-surface measurements gathered by NASA spacecraft821

8 November Engineers discovered that exposure to 11 months of cold temperatures in outer space could cause the descent engine on Mars Polar Lander to malfunction NASA had scheduled Mars Polar Lander to land on Mars on 3 December Landerrsquos companion craft Mars Climate Orbiter had burned up as it entered its Martian orbit on 23 September The investigative panel studying the cause of Orbiterrsquos loss had uncovered the potential problem with Landerrsquos engines Because of the discovery scientists at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) altered their plans deciding

819 Jeff Leeds ldquoTest Mishap Delays Development of Lockheedrsquos X-33 Rocket Planerdquo Los Angeles Times 6 November 1999 820 U S General Accounting Office ldquoExport Controls International Space Station Technology Transfersrdquo (report no NSIAD-00-14 Washington DC 3 November 1999) httpwwwgaogovarchive2000ns00014pdf (accessed 21 March 2008) Aerospace Daily ldquoNASA Illegally Exported Technology for Space Station GAO reportsrdquo 22 November 1999 821 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ldquoNew Global Digital Tectonic Activity Map of the Earth Producedrdquo news release 99-116 5 November 1999 httpwwwgsfcnasagovnews-releasereleases199999-116htm (accessed 24 March 2008)

233


to turn on the craftrsquos descent engine heaters earlier than originally scheduled to warm the engines to 464degF (8degC) before Landerrsquos descent822

10 November The Mars Climate Orbiter Mission Failure Investigation Board released its first report identifying eight contributing factors that had led to the 23 September loss of Orbiter as it entered its Martian orbit Arthur Stephenson chairperson of the board investigating the failure agreed with NASA on the causes of the missionrsquos failure The board reported that ldquothe failed translation of English units into metric units in a segment of ground-based navigation-related mission softwarerdquo was the primary cause of the loss but that other significant factors had set the stage for the missionrsquos failure Moreover the team had failed to identify and correct multiple mistakes leading to ldquoa major error in our understanding of the spacecraftrsquos path as it approached Marsrdquo The failure board faulted the Mars Climate Orbiter team with ldquoinadequate consideration of the entire mission and its postlaunch operation as a total system inconsistent communications and training within the project and lack of complete end-to-end verification of navigation softwarerdquo Although engineers working with Lockheed Martin Astronauticsrsquo mission operations team had failed to convert English units into metric for entering data into ground-based navigation software the investigating board focused most of its attention on the navigation team at NASArsquos JPL which had overall management authority for the mission The board remarked that because it had navigated interplanetary spacecraft successfully for 30 years JPL had developed a ldquowidespread perception that lsquoOrbiting Mars is routinersquordquo leading it to pay inadequate attention to the risk of faulty navigation823

12 November NASArsquos Office of Earth Science Enterprise selected Ball Aerospace of Boulder Colorado and Aerojet General Corporation of Azusa California to study the next-generation spaceborne microwave atmospheric instrument for weather-forecasting and climate-change research awarding each company a one-year US$4 million fixed-price contract through Goddard Space Flight Center The new instrument the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) was one-third the size and weight of existing microwave-sounding instruments on board the Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES) and the Earth Observing System-PM spacecraft The application of new technologies particularly in microwave electronics had made the significantly smaller size of the ATMS possible NASA intended to fly the first ATMS unit on the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environment Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) mission a joint effort between NASA and the NPOESS Program Office NPOESS a tri-agency program consisting of parts of NASA the National Oceanic and

822 Larry Wheeler ldquoNASA Finds Flaw in Mars Lander Engine Turning On Descent Heaters Earlier Should Prevent Failure of Missionrdquo Florida Today 9 November 1999 Mark Carreau ldquoMars Probe To Get Brake Check NASA Engineers To Warm Descent Rockets of Polar Landerrdquo Houston Chronicle 9 November 1999 823 NASA ldquoMars Climate Orbiter Failure Board Releases Report Numerous NASA Actions Underway in Responserdquo news release 99-134 10 November 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-134txt (accessed 12 March 2008) Earl Lane ldquoReport Details NASA Failings Assigns Blame for Orbiterrsquos Lossrdquo Newsday (Long Island NY) 11 November 1999

234


Atmospheric Administration and the US Air Force merged civilian and military polar-orbiting weather satellite systems into a single system824

13 November The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) entered safe mode when the fourth of six gyroscopes failed halting its astronomical observations Requiring a minimum of three operating gyroscopes to conduct observations HST would remain in safe mode with a reduced power load until Space Shuttle astronauts arrived with six new gyroscopes another data recorder a radio transmitter and an improved computer The telescope was not at risk NASA had divided the servicing mission originally scheduled for June 2000 into two missions when the third gyroscope failed in February NASA had scheduled the first part of the mission Servicing Mission-3A for the fall but rescheduled it for 6 December because the Shuttle had wiring problems and needed its engine replaced NASA had scheduled Servicing Mission-3B for mid-2001825

15 November NASA announced the winner of an essay contest to name the Deep Space 2 microprobes which the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft was carrying to Mars NASA had scheduled the two probes to crash into Marsrsquos south pole on 3 December Paul Withers a graduate student at the University of Arizona in Tucson studying the thin upper atmosphere of Mars had suggested naming the pair Amundsen and Scott in honor of Roald Amundsen and Robert F Scott the first explorers to reach Earthrsquos South Pole In his winning essay Withers recalled that one century ago Antarctica was Earthrsquos only unexplored continent Withers wrote ldquoScott perished in Antarctica His memorialrsquos inscription reads lsquoTo strive to seek to find not to yieldrsquo These are the aims of the Deep Space 2rdquo NASA had designed the two probes with a dual purpose to test advanced technology for future planetary-surface microlanders and to search for water ice 3 feet (09 meters) below the Martian surface Deep Space 2 Project Manager Sarah A Gavit remarked that the names of the Antarctic explorers were appropriate for the probes because ldquolike Amundsen and Scott Deep Space 2 will have to survive great odds including not only braving the elements but also crashing into the terrain with unbelievable forcerdquo826

The main engine of Japanrsquos H-2 rocket malfunctioned 4 minutes after launching from Tanegashima Space Center failing to put the Mtsat satellite into orbit Fearing they could lose control of its trajectory officials ordered the rocketrsquos destruction 8 minutes into its flight marking the first time the National Space Development Agency of Japan had destroyed a rocket in flight It was the second launch failure for the H-2 rocket during 1999 another H-2 had failed to place its payload in orbit in February However before the February malfunction Japan had

824 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ldquoBall and AerojetmdashGeneral Picked To Study New Weather Sensorrdquo news release 99-117 12 November 1999 httpwwwgsfcnasagovnews-releasereleases199999-117htm (accessed 24 March 2008) 825 NASA ldquoHubble Telescope Placed into Safe Hold as Gyroscope Failsrdquo news release 99-136 15 November 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-136txt (accessed 12 March 2008) Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoHubble Troublerdquo 15 November 1999 826 NASA ldquoMars Penetrator Probes Named for Pioneering Polar Explorersrdquo news release 99-135 15 November 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-135txt (accessed 12 March 2008)

235


launched five H-2 rockets successfully The Mtsat satellite intended to replace the Himawari 5 satellite would have observed weather patterns and monitored aircraft827

16 November Officials at NASArsquos Langley Research Center (LARC) officially opened the Centerrsquos new Experimental Test Range (ETR) described as an ldquoelectromagnetic wind tunnelrdquo LARC engineers had designed the ETR to determine how low-frequency electromagnetic radiation affects aircraft to help the military improve stealth technology The ETR also would assist in testing technologies to enable airline passengers to watch television signals from satellites or to help Internet users make wireless connections The first military customer that had signed up to use the ETR the US Armyrsquos National Ground Intelligence Center planned to use models of enemy targets in the test chamber to see how they appeared on radar screens828

17 November NASA announced that new analysis of data from the Galileo spacecraft suggested that Jupiter is possibly much older and colder than previously thought Upon reaching the planet on 7 December 1995 Galileo had dropped a probe carrying a mass spectrometer into Jupiterrsquos atmosphere to measure its chemical composition The spectrometer had ldquodetected surprisingly high concentrations of argon krypton and xenonrdquo raising questions about the noble gasesrsquo provenance Because Jupiter would have trapped the gases through condensation or freezing scientists did not believe Jupiterrsquos atmosphere had trapped the gases at its present site As positioned at present Jupiter is too close to the Sun and too warm to have trapped the gases Tobias Owen an astronomy professor at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii and a member of the Galileo probe Neutral Mass Spectrometer team suggested three hypotheses to explain how the gases had been trapped within the Jovian atmosphere 1) Jupiter had formed in the area around the Kuiper Belt829 and was dragged inward to its present location 2) the solar nebula the cloud of gas and dust that formed the solar system had been much colder than scientists had previously believed and 3) the solid materials that had brought the gases to Jupiter had begun to form in the original interstellar cloud of gas and dust before the cloud had collapsed to form the solar nebula Owen remarked further that if either of the last two hypotheses were correct then giant planets might be able to form closer to their stars than current theories had predicted Such a finding could help explain ldquothe new observations of planetary systems around other stars in which such close-in giant planets are relatively commonrdquo830

18 November

827 Associated Press ldquoJapan Destroys Rocket in Midair as It Lifted $95 Million Satelliterdquo New York Times 16 November 1999 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoJapan Satellite Fails To Reach Orbit Rocket Destroyedrdquo 15 November 1999 828 Jeff Long for Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News ldquoHampton Va NASA Research Center Tests Plane Design with Wind Tunnelrdquo 17 November 1999 829 The Kuiper Belt a region of the solar system beyond the planets is composed of the remnants of the solar systemrsquos formation 830 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoGalileo Probe Results Suggest Jupiter Had an Ancient Chilly Pastrdquo news release 99-096 17 November 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99glprobeargonhtml (accessed 12 March 2008) Tobias Owen et al ldquoA Low-Temperature Origin for the Planetesimals that Formed Jupiterrdquo Nature 402 no 6759 (18 November 1999) 269ndash270

236


Interfax news agency reported that Russia had agreed to pay Kazakhstan US$400000 in damages following the 27 October crash of a Proton rocket during its launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome After reaching an agreement on compensation Kazakhstan had lifted its launch ban for all Russian launches except the Proton rocket831

19 November NASA announced that new data and images which the Galileo spacecraft had collected on its closest-ever flyby of Jupiterrsquos moon Io on 11 October 1999 revealed that Io the most volcanic body in the solar system was ldquoeven more active than previously suspected with more than 100 erupting volcanoesrdquo Data results from the flyby which brought the spacecraft within 380 miles (611 kilometers) of the moonrsquos surface had focused on Pele Loki and Prometheus three of Iorsquos most active volcanoes A close-up image of Pele showed part of the volcano glowing in the dark with Pelersquos hot lava behaving similarly to active lava lakes in Hawaii Galileorsquos Photopolarimeter Radiometer and Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer had provided detailed temperature maps of Loki indicating the presence of an enormous caldera repeatedly flooded by lava New data had clarified the location of lava from Prometheus erupting advancing and producing plumes NASArsquos 1979 Voyager mission had observed a plume and early Galileo images had shown a new lava flow and plume erupting from a location 60 miles (97 kilometers) west of the area observed during Voyagerrsquos mission832

21 November The Peoplersquos Republic of China announced it had launched into orbit its first piloted spacecraft a non-reusable capsule named Shenzhou which carried a mannequin for test purposes but was capable of carrying a crew of four Xinhua news agency reported that the capsule launched from Jiuquan satellite launch center aboard the new model Long March 2F had spent 21 hours in space orbiting Earth 14 times China had built a new land- and sea-based space-monitoring-andshycontrol network for the launch China heralded the launch as a breakthrough in the Chinese governmentrsquos effort to ldquojoin the United States and Russia in the elite club of manned space flightrdquo The Chinese had abandoned the pursuit of human spaceflight in the late 1960s because Premier Zhou Enlai thought it was too costly but in 1992 President Jiang Zemin had decided to renew Chinese efforts with the goal of putting a human in space by the end of the century The head of Chinarsquos Manned Spaceflight Program told Xinhua news agency that the successful test flight of the Shenzhou capsule demonstrated that the Chinese spacecraft and the new Long March rocket performed superbly During the mission the Chinese had conducted experiments in remote sensing environmental monitoring space materials astronomy and physics Shenzhou had landed in Inner Mongolia using a parachute833

22 November Lockheed Martin launched a Navy communications satellite aboard an Atlas 2A rocket a badly needed success in a year of launch failures delays investigations and diminishing business The

831 Associated Press ldquoRussia-Kazakstan-Rocketsrdquo 19 November 1999 832 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoJupiterrsquos Moon Io A Flashback to Earthrsquos Volcanic Pastrdquo news release 99shy138 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99ioishothtml (accessed 12 March 2008) 833 Michael Laris ldquoChinese Test Craft for Manned Orbits Space Launch Boosts National Priderdquo Washington Post 22 November 1999 Washington Times ldquoChinese Successfully Launch First Spacecraftrdquo 22 November 1999 Spacewarn Bulletin no 553 1 December 1999 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx553html (accessed 6 August 2008)

237


company had failed to put three satellites in orbit in April sustaining a total loss of US$15 billion Investigations into the launch failure of a rocket using similar parts had delayed Lockheed International Launch Servicesrsquo maiden flight of the Atlas IIIA causing its first customer Space SystemsLoral to launch its Telstar 7 satellite on a European Ariane booster instead NASA had lost contact with its US$125 million Lockheed Martinndashbuilt Mars Climate Orbiter in September and in the subsequent investigation had discovered that Lockheed had used English units of measurement instead of metric resulting in miscalculations in navigational data Although for many years Lockheed Martin had supplied satellites to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) the US government agency responsible for spy satellites in September the NRO had awarded a major contract to the Boeing Company to develop the next generation of imaging-reconnaissance satellites Lockheed Martin also faced increased competition from Russiarsquos new Dnepr rocket Europersquos Eurockot and the US-based Orbital Sciences Corporationrsquos Pegasus834

A Russian Soyuz rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying four Globalstar satellites into orbit The launch was Russiarsquos first from the space center in Kazakhstan since a Proton rocket exploded after launch on 27 October prompting the Kazakhstan government to reimpose its launch ban Kazakhstan had lifted the ban partially after Russia agreed to pay US$400000 in compensation Media reports indicated that Russia had earned US$70 million from commercial launches such as that conducted for Globalstar Inc an important income source for the Russian

835space program

23 November Oleksandr Serdiuk head of the International Relations Department of Ukrainersquos Space Agency announced that Ukraine and Brazil had signed an agreement the previous week allowing Ukraine to use Brazilrsquos Alcacircntara space complex to launch a new generation of Cyclone-4 booster rockets medium-weight rockets capable of putting 4 tons (3600 kilograms or 36 tonnes) of payload into a geostationary orbit In 1992 when the USSR dissolved Ukraine had retained part of the former Soviet Unionrsquos space program using several former Soviet factories to build rockets and selling rocket space to commercial satellite companies Before the agreement with Brazil Ukraine had only used launchpads in other former Soviet countries However Ukraine wanted to take advantage of the location of the Alcacircntara space complex near the equator where spacecraft reach orbit more easily and commercial launches a

24 November Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution I Michael Heyman announced the appointment of General John R Dailey US Marine Corps (Retired) Associate Deputy Administrator of NASA as Director of the Smithsonianrsquos National Air and Space Museum effective January 2000 Dailey succeeded Vice Admiral Donald D Engen US Navy (Retired) who had died suddenly in a glider accident in July after serving as the museumrsquos director for three years Dailey had begun work at NASA in 1992 after retiring from 36 years of highly decorated service in the US Marine Corps NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin remarked that Daileyrsquos leadership at NASA had been unparalleled and that he had ldquoshaped and strengthened the [A]gency and was responsible for developing an infrastructure that [would] carry NASA into the

834 United Press International ldquoLockheed Martin Struggles Through Yearrdquo 23 November 1999 835 Associated Press ldquoRussia Launches First Rocket Since October Explosionrdquo 22 November 1999

238


new millenniumrdquo Secretary Heyman commented on Daileyrsquos selection from a strong field of candidates describing him as ldquoa most impressive individualrdquo who had earned confidence and admiration throughout the air and space community and would continue the strong dedicated leadership expected at the museum In addition to managing 260 employees and a US$25 million budget Daileyrsquos appointment placed him in charge of construction of the museumrsquos new 710000-square-foot (66000-square-meter) hangar-style facility expected to open at Dulles International Airport in December 2003 The Smithsonian had conceived the idea of the new facility to display its vast aeronautics and space holdings the original National Air and Space Museum building was too small to house the additional collection of more than 180 aircraft and 100 spacecraft836

27 November NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft was unable to record its closest encounter with Jupiterrsquos moon Io as it passed within 186 miles (299 kilometers) of the volcanic moonrsquos surface Although radiation shut down the craftrsquos instruments NASA was able to restart the instruments 4 minutes later permitting Galileo to complete more than half of its planned observations The craft had encountered a similar problem when it had flown within 380 miles (611 kilometers) of Io in October NASA had added the close flybys of Io located deep within the Jovian systemrsquos radiation belts to the end of Galileorsquos two-year extended mission The spacecraft had launched from Space Shuttle Atlantis on 18 October 1989 had begun orbiting Jupiter in December 1995 and had completed its primary mission in December 1997 thereafter continuing an extended mission focused on Jupiterrsquos moon Europa with flybys of the planetrsquos moons Callisto and Io as well837

DECEMBER 1999

3 December NASA officials and Mars Polar Lander Mission scientists were unable to communicate with Lander following its scheduled landing The team had expected the first signal to arrive from the spacecraft at a tracking station in the Mojave Desert in California approximately 30 minutes after the scheduled touchdown at 301 pm (EST) A second attempt to communicate with the craft had produced nothing Before the craftrsquos landing tracking data indicated that Lander had veered slightly off course Flight controllers had fired its thrusters briefly to alter its approach angle slightly Flight Operations Manager Sam Thurman had expressed his satisfaction with the new tracking data which showed the craft heading for a point within a mile of its target838

7 December Mission controllers indicated that chances of ever contacting the US$165 million Mars Polar Lander were ldquoremote at bestrdquo after they failed to detect a signal during their ldquolast best chancerdquo

836 Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum ldquoNew Director of the National Air and Space Museum To Take Office in Januaryrdquo news release 24 November 1999 httpwwwnasmsiedueventspressroomreleaseDetailcfm releaseID=97 (accessed 19 March 2008) Peter Carlson ldquoNew Air amp Space Chief General Succeeds Director Killed in Crashrdquo Washington Post 24 November 1999 837 John Antozak for the Associated Press ldquoGalileorsquos Moon Shots Impeded by Radiationrdquo Washington Times 27 November 1999 John Antozak for the Associated Press ldquoGalileo Spacecraft Faces Huge Doses of Radiationrdquo USA Today 26 November 1999 838 John Noble Wilford ldquoProbe to Mars Becomes Silent Its Fate Unclearrdquo New York Times 4 December 1999

239


of communicating with the probe NASA officials announced that the loss of Lander meant that NASA would need to drop the timetable for future Mars missions and rethink the entire Mars exploration program including the scheduled launch of the next lander in 2001 NASA had already spent US$193 million on the planned 2001 launch Edward J Weiler head of NASArsquos Office of Space Science indicated that NASA would convene a panel of experts to diagnose the Mars Polar Lander failure and to suggest a ldquonew architecturerdquo for its Mars program Although they had set no dates members of Congress said that they planned to hold hearings about NASArsquos procedures and budget839

9 December The National Research Council (NRC) published a NASA-funded study which found that NASA needed more safeguards to protect astronauts from potentially cancer-causing radiation during spacewalks they would make while building the International Space Station (ISS) The study recommended that NASA change flight rules improve space-weather forecasting and install a radiation-monitoring device outside the ISS The NRC recommended the extra precautions because the stationrsquos assembly schedule consisting of more than three dozen flights and 1500 hours of spacewalks over four years would coincide with the most active part of the 11-year solar cycle Moreover the report estimated a nearly 100 percent chance that at least two assembly missions would overlap with a serious solar storm and a 50 percent chance that five flights would overlap with such a storm Additionally the NRC predicted that a change in the stationrsquos planned orbit which the Russian Space Agency had requested to accommodate Russian launches to help build and resupply the station would increase the level of radiation exposure George L Siscoe a Boston University physics professor and chairperson of the study remarked that although the radiation levels were not life threatening they exceeded the 30-day and 60-day limits set to protect the skin and eyes To safeguard crew from exposure to the increased risk of developing cancer later in life countries participating in the ISS program would have to pay careful attention to flight schedules and crew rotation Furthermore the amount of radiation exposure sustained during ISS missions might affect an astronautrsquos chances of assignment to additional spacewalks and their selection for future missions840

10 December Europersquos new 746-ton (677000-kilogram or 677-tonne) Ariane 5 rocket launched smoothly on its first mission carrying the European Space Agencyrsquos 37-ton (3400-kilogram or 34-tonne) X-ray Multi-Mirror (XMM) scientific satellite into orbit In what France called an industry milestone and ldquohailed as proof of Europersquos superiority in the commercial launch marketrdquo the powerful rocket lifted off at the opening of its launch window from Europersquos facility in Kourou French Guiana depositing the satellite in orbit exactly on schedule 29 minutes later Jean-Marie Luton chairperson of Arianespace the France-based commercial space company that dominated the worldrsquos commercial satellite-launching market remarked that although the United States remained its most serious competitor and China was catching up quickly ldquoEuropeans were still

839 Down Jones Newswire ldquoNASA Fails To Detect Signal from Mars Polar Landerrdquo 7 December 1999 Peter Kendall and Vincent J Schodolski for the Chicago Tribune News Service ldquoMars Exploration Put on Hold NASA Scraps Its Timetable and the Launch of a $193 Million Lander Set for 2001 Is Uncertainrdquo Oregonian (Portland) 8 December 1999 840 Michael Cabbage for Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News ldquoStudy Urges NASA To Increase Radiation Safeguardsrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 10 December 1999

240


one step aheadrdquo Arianespace intended the Ariane 5 twice as heavy and twice as powerful as the Ariane 4 to carry 10- to 12-ton (9100- to 10900-kilogram or 91- to 109-tonne) payloads by 2005 transporting space-exploration modules and serving the ISS The XMM satellite was the largest scientific satellite ever built in Europe equipped with three powerful telescopes with 58 mirrors each and ldquocapable of observing everything from supernovas to the remains of exploded starsrdquo841

A six-member team of Brown University scientists used data from NASArsquos Mars Global Surveyor to examine six categories of evidence supporting the hypothesis that oceans once existed on Mars The team led by planetary geologist James W Head III published their findings in the journal Science Primarily using altimetry data and images captured by Surveyor the researchers had found that the border between two geologically dissimilar areas was nearly level in elevation suggesting an ancient coastline Furthermore they found that the topography below the possible coastline was consistent with the effects of sedimentation and the volume of the hypothetical sea was within range of previous estimates of Martian water A series of terraces running parallel to the supposed shoreline gave credence to the idea of receding water low areas contained the appearance of possible mud cracks and scars from impact craters suggested groundwater or ice near the surface842

At a scheduled 13 December ribbon-cutting ceremony NASA announced the opening of FutureFlight Central (FFC) at Ames Research Centerrsquos Moffett Field in Mountain View California NASA had designed the two-story facility⎯the worldrsquos first full-scale virtual airport control tower⎯to test methods of solving under realistic conditions and configurations potential air and ground traffic problems at commercial airports NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration had jointly funded the US$10 million project The design of FFC permitted ldquointegration of tomorrowrsquos technologies in a risk-free simulation of any airport airfield and tower-cab environmentrdquo843

12 December The US Air Force successfully launched a Titan II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying the first of a new generation of military weather satellites a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Block 5D-3 spacecraft Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space had built the DMSP Block 5D-3 craft under contract with the US Air Force and Lockheed Martin Astronautics had supplied the launch vehicle US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base managed the DMSP and Titan programs The first launch of a Titan II since 19 June 1999 it was the ninth consecutive successful launch of the space launch vehicle The Titan II a type of booster previously used as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and a fundamental element of the United Statesrsquo strategic deterrent for two decades was one of 14 two-stage liquid-fueled former ICBMs that Lockheed Martin Astronautics had

841 Jean-Marie Godard for Associated Press ldquoMission Accomplished for Powerful New European Launcherrdquo 10 December 1998 842 James W Head III et al ldquoPossible Ancient Oceans on Mars Evidence from Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter Datardquo Science 286 no 5447 (10 December 1999) 2134ndash2137 William J Broad ldquoTantalizing Signs of Ancient Martian Oceanrdquo New York Times 10 December 1999 843 NASA ldquoNASA Opens New Virtual Airport Control Tower at Amesrdquo news release 99-143 10 December 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-143txt (accessed 13 March 2008)

241


refurbished for Air Force space launches NASA had also used Titan II rockets during its Gemini program in the 1960s launching 10 piloted and 2 unpiloted missions The DMSP Block 5D-3 series accommodated larger sensor payloads than previous models featuring a larger power supply a more powerful on-board computer with increased memory giving the craft greater autonomy and increased battery power intended to extend the missionrsquos duration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operated DMSP a program for strategic and tactical weather prediction to aid the US military in planning sea land and air operations844

14 December NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin selected NASA Chief Engineer Daniel R Mulville to replace General John R Dailey as Associate Deputy Administrator effective 1 January 2000 Dailey was leaving to become Director of the National Air and Space Museum NASA had appointed Mulville as Chief Engineer in 1995 responsible for overall review of technical readiness and for execution of all NASA programs From 1990 to 1995 Mulville had been Director of the Engineering and Quality Management Division in NASArsquos Office of Safety and Mission Assurance and from 1986 to 1990 he was Deputy Director of the Materials and Structures Division in NASArsquos Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology Before that appointment Mulville had served as the Structures Technology Manager at the Naval Air Systems Command since 1979 where he led the development of structural design testing and certification methods as Program Manager for the Development of Composites for the AV-8B and FA-18 aircraft and advanced aircraft and missile programs Mulville had received NASArsquos Distinguished Service Medal NASArsquos Outstanding Leadership Medal and NASArsquos Exceptional Service Medal among other awards Goldin expressed his pleasure at Mulvillersquos acceptance of the position remarking that as Associate Deputy Administrator Mulville would be his most senior advisor on NASA operations and commenting on Mulvillersquos outstanding work as NASArsquos Chief Engineer845

17 December NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin named A Thomas Young to chair the Mars Program Independent Assessment Team charged with reviewing NASArsquos approach to robotic exploration of Mars following the recent loss of the Mars Polar Lander Mission Among the review teamrsquos tasks were the evaluation of several recent NASA missions to deep space including Mars Pathfinder Mars Global Surveyor Mars Climate Orbiter Mars Polar Lander Deep Space 1 and Deep Space 2 The team would analyze the projectsrsquo budgets content schedule management structure and scientific organization assessing how roles and responsibilities of those missions related to the missionsrsquo safety reliability and success846

At the American Geophysical Unionrsquos fall meeting in San Francisco NASA presented images from the Galileo spacecraftrsquos close flyby of Jupiterrsquos moon Io on 25 November showing ldquoa curtain of lava erupting within a giant volcanic craterrdquo Because of the intense heat and height of

844 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Companies Launch Military Weather Satelliterdquo news release 12 December 1999 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases1999LOCKHEEDMARTINCOMPANIESLAUNCH MILITAhtml (accessed 13 March 2008) 845 NASA ldquoMulville Named Associate Deputy Administratorrdquo news release 99-146 14 December 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-146txt (accessed 13 March 2008) 846 NASA ldquoYoung To Lead Mars Program Assessment Teamrdquo news release 99-147 17 December 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-147txt (accessed 13 March 2008)

242


the lava fountains NASArsquos Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea Hawaii was also able to observe them NASA scientists hoped to determine the temperature of the extremely hot lava on Io by combining data from the telescope and from Galileo observations Galileo scientist Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona in Tucson remarked that capturing images of the fountains was a 1-in-500-chance observation NASA announced that engineers at Jet Propulsion Laboratoryrsquos (JPLrsquos) Measurement Technology Center had been able to repair images damaged by radiation during Galileorsquos 10 October flyby using LabVIEW software from National Instruments JPLrsquos Torrence V Johnson compared the work to unscrambling a television cable signal ldquoJPL engineers had to break the code that was inadvertently introduced by the radiation near Iordquo847

18 December NASA launched its Terra satellite carrying instruments made in the United States Japan and Canada from Vandenberg Air Force Base atop a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS rocket NASA had originally scheduled the mission to launch on 14 December but a computer had aborted the launch moments before ignition Terra carried five sophisticated instruments for observing the interactions among Earthrsquos landmasses atmosphere ocean and biosphere NASA considered the craft the flagship of its Earth Observing System because of its instrumentsrsquo measurement capabilities and accuracy The five instruments were 1) the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) designed to capture high-resolution images of Earth in visible near-infrared shortwave-infrared and thermal-infrared areas of the spectrum 2) the Clouds and the Earthrsquos Radiant Energy System (CERES) a set of two broadband scanning radiometers for measuring Earthrsquos radiation 3) the Multi-Angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) an instrument using nine cameras to measure the amount of sunlight scattered in different directions 4) the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) designed to view the entire surface of the Earth every one to two days and to make observations in 36 spectral bands and 5) the Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) designed to observe the interaction of the lower atmosphere with the land and oceans848

19 December After an unprecedented nine delays Space Shuttle Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida During Mission STS-103 the crew planned to restore the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to working order and to upgrade its systems Discoveryrsquos crew comprised Commander Curtis L Brown Jr Pilot Scott J Kelly and Mission Specialists Steven L Smith C Michael Foale John M Grunsfield Claude Nicollier and Jean-Franccedilois Clervoy849

20 December A Taurus rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying satellites for NASA and the Korean Aerospace Institute as well as 36 capsules holding 7 ounces of cremated remains for Celestis Inc a Houston-based company that arranged to send human remains to space NASArsquos 253-pound (1148-kilogram) Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (EOS ACRIM III)

847 NASA ldquoGalileo Sees Dazzling Lava Fountain on Iordquo news release 99-148 17 December 1999 httpwww nasagovhomehqnews199999-148txt (accessed 13 March 2008) 848 Associated Press ldquoNASA Launched Earth Observing Satellite on $13 Billion Missionrdquo 20 December 1999 849 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-103 Third Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Missionrdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-103html (accessed 29 October 2008)

243


expected to return data for a minimum of five years was deployed to measure sunlight reaching Earthrsquos atmosphere oceans and land data needed for scientists to study whether slight changes in solar output affected global warming and cooling ACRIM III was the third in a series of long-term solar-monitoring tolls that NASArsquos JPL had built ACRIM IIIrsquos data would expand the database begun with the ACRIM I mission in 1980 aboard the Solar Maximum Mission spacecraft and continued with the ACRIM II mission in 1991 aboard the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite ACRIM I was the first instrument to demonstrate clearly that the total radiant energy from the Sun is not a constant The Korean satellite built by TRW Inc for a three-year mission carried three instruments for creating digital elevation maps of Korea studying the biology of the ocean and performing physics experiments on the effects of radiation on electronics The Celestis mission carried 36 capsules of human remains which would orbit for 45 years before burning up in Earthrsquos atmosphere850

21 December Space Shuttle Discovery astronauts captured the HST using the Shuttlersquos robotic arm Discovery had to alter its approach to the space telescope because the telescopersquos failed gyroscopes had ldquoleft the telescope a little shakyrdquo but Commander Curtis L Brown Jr and his crew had prepared for such a scenario A fully operational HST would have had its aft pointed at the center of Earth Brown would have carried out a straightforward approach rising up from below until the robotic arm simply locked on Without its gyroscopes functioning the HST slowly rotated at one revolution per hour Therefore controllers activated backup gyroscopes to eliminate the rotation as much as possible permitting Brown to fly around the HST and properly position the Shuttlersquos robotic arm As both spacecraft traveled around the Earth at 17500 miles (28000 kilometers) per hour with Brown at the controls Discovery moved closer to the HST until French astronaut Jean-Franccedilois Clervoy had removed the 43-foot (13-meter) 25000-pound (11300-kilogram) telescope from orbit and anchored it in the Shuttle cargo bay851

22 December Robert S Ruggeri a retired NASA engineer and pioneer in de-icing research died at the age of 75 Ruggeri had begun working for NASArsquos predecessor agency in 1944 retiring from NASA in 1980 NASA had applied his findings from studying ice buildup on airplane wings in the 1940s and 1950s to the development of rockets and Space Shuttles When the United States sought to speed up its space program following the Soviet Unionrsquos launch of Sputnik Ruggeri had also researched the effects of cavitation⎯partial vacuums in flowing liquids⎯on cryogenic rocket pumps looking for ways to make the pumps more efficient for rockets Later in his career at NASA Ruggerirsquos work had focused on the design of compressors for advanced aircraft engines as he sought ways to increase fuel efficiency reduce air pollution and minimize the noise of jet engines852

850 NASA ldquoItem 1⎯ACRIMSAT Launch⎯HQrdquo NASA Daily News Summary 21 December 1999 httpwww nasagovhomehqnewsmedia1999m99-262txt (accessed 13 March 2008) Associated Press ldquoNASA Satellite Korea Probe Rocket into Spacerdquo 21 December 1999 851 Associated Press ldquoDiscovery Astronauts Capture Hubble Telescope for Repairsrdquo Washington Times 22 December 1999 William Harwood ldquoDiscovery Catches Up with Hubble for a Service Call in Spacerdquo Washington Post 22 December 1999 852 ldquoRobert Ruggeri NASA Engineer Was a Pioneer in Aircraft De-Icingrdquo Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH) 26 December 1999

244


In the second-longest spacewalk in NASArsquos history lasting 8 hours and 15 minutes Steven L Smith and John M Grunsfeld successfully replaced all six of HSTrsquos gyroscopes and had ldquojust enough time to equip each of the telescopersquos six batteries with a voltage regulator to prevent overheatingrdquo NASA believed corroded wires had caused the gyroscope failures To avoid repeating the failure engineers used pressurized nitrogen rather than air to force fluid into the new gyroscopes Smith and Grunsfeld alternated working inside the tight space housing the gyroscopes Because of his long arms NASA assigned the 6-foot-35-inch-tall (19-meter-tall) Smith who had worked on HST during its last service call in 1997 the task of replacing the two sets of gyroscopes on the sides which were more difficult to reach The spacewalk lasted 2 hours longer than scheduled Although Smith and Grunsfeld went to work an hour early and quickly organizing their tools in the cargo bay the pair needed extra time to open coolant-line valves on a disabled infrared camera and encountered difficulty latching the doors of the cargo bay holding the equipment853

23 December British-born US astronaut C Michael Foale and Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier installed a new central computer on HST 20 times faster than the telescopersquos previous one and a refurbished 550-pound (250-kilogram) fine guidance sensor At 8 hours and 10 minutes the pairrsquos spacewalk was the third longest in NASArsquos history854

24 December Astronauts Steven L Smith and John M Grunsfeld completed the HST servicing mission replacing a nonfunctioning radio transmitter and an outdated tape recorder The spacewalk again exceeded 8 hours and for the third time ran behind schedule As the pair prepared to begin their spacewalk Grunsfeld encountered a mechanical problem with his suit and had to exchange it before exiting Discoveryrsquos airlock Grunsfeld also faced the most difficult task replacing the transmitter which was not easy to service in space The job required him to disconnect and reconnect a series of thin coaxial cables while wearing bulky pressurized gloves NASA had designed a special tool for the job but even so the task required more than an hour and Grunsfeld needed to stop to rest his hands The eight-day repair flight had accomplished all of the missionrsquos major objectives although NASA cancelled a fourth spacewalk preventing the astronauts from installing all six steel sunshades that protect HST from solar damage855

25 December Discovery astronauts placed the HST back in orbit using the Shuttlersquos robotic arm Astronaut Jean-Franccedilois Clervoy operated the arm grabbing a handle on the telescopersquos side After releasing the latches securing the observatory inside the Shuttlersquos bay the robotic arm lifted the telescope above the spacecraft and ground controllers opened the door covering HSTrsquos

853 Marcia Dunn for the Associated Press ldquoHubble Gets a Transplant Initial Check Says New Parts Are Workingrdquo Los Angeles Times 23 December 1999 Associated Press ldquoCrew Replaces All 6 Hubble Gyroscopesrdquo Washington Times 23 December 1999 854 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-103rdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-103html (accessed 25 March 2008) 855 Michael Cabbage ldquoGood Job Hubble Looks Fit as Fiddle at the End of a Happy Day in Space the Astronauts Sent Holiday Greetings to Earthrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 25 December 1999 Reuters ldquoAstronauts Wrap Up Work on Hubble Christmas Eve Mission Replaces Bad Transmitterrdquo Washington Times 25 December 1999 Associated Press ldquoRepairs Done Shuttle Crew Makes Plans for Landingrdquo New York Times 27 December 1999

245


telescopic eye Once ground controllers gave the command Discoveryrsquos robotic arm released the telescope Commander Curtis L Brown Jr and Pilot Scott J Kelly fired the Shuttlersquos thrusters to move away from the telescope slowly856

27 December Although crosswinds caused a late touchdown Space Shuttle Discovery landed safely after its eight-day servicing mission to HST NASA managers had instructed Discovery to fly an extra orbit before landing while Mission Control monitored the weather on the ground NASA had shortened the mission to eight days from the scheduled 10 because of numerous launch delays and because Discovery must return to Earth before New Yearrsquos Eve to avoid potential Y2K computer problems857

JANUARY 2000

4 January After detailing only a few computer glitches which had occurred during the dreaded Y2K transition Federal Computer Week reported that NASA had narrowly avoided a Y2K data flaw that might have redirected the orbit of its Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite According to NASArsquos Chief Information Officer the software that transmitted the commands directing satellite orbits had automatically reverted to 1 January 1999 commands when it should have used 1 January 2000 commands Attentive operators caught the potential problem before the software had sent the faulty data to any satellites Although the episode accentuated the seriousness of the Y2K computer transition it was notable that in spite of the risks very few computer crashes actually occurred during the changeover858

7 January In the wake of the failure of the Mars Polar Lander Mission an independent assessment team appointed by NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin assembled for the first time to begin a review of NASArsquos approach to the exploration of Mars The 16-member team included aeronautics experts from NASA aerospace industries the US Air Force and academia Although NASA officials held out hope that Lander would eventually respond to signals from Earth Goldin tasked the team with evaluating NASArsquos successful and unsuccessful missions to Mars The independent investigation continued NASArsquos pattern of scrutinizing all failures to improve its proficiency in the exploration of space859

10 January NASA released recently obtained images that further supported the possibility that Jupiterrsquos moon Europa might be home to a liquid ocean The Galileo spacecraft had captured the images when passing Europarsquos north pole Using a magnetometer instrument Galileo had recorded

856 Robyn Suriano ldquoHubble Set Free Discoveryrsquos Crew Ready for Monday Landing at KSCrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 26 December 1999 857 Washington Times ldquoShuttle Back on Earth after Hubble Repairsrdquo 28 December 1999 Robyn Suriano ldquolsquoWelcome Back to Earthrsquo Discovery Shuttle Astronauts Come in for Late but Safe Landingrdquo USA Today 28 December 1999 858 Paula Shaki Trimble ldquoNASA Discovered Last-Minute Y2K Glitchrdquo Federal Computer Week 4 January 2000 859 NASA ldquoMars Program Independent Assessment Team Begins Workrdquo news release 00-6 7 January 2000

246


changing currents in the moonrsquos magnetic field⎯a finding consistent with the presence of a conducting material such as a watery liquid860

11 January The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Rockwell International Inc Boeing North American Inc and United Space Alliance for concealing millions of dollars in fraud committed by a subcontractor According to the suit the subcontractor had used funds from the Shuttle program to purchase homes jewelry and vacations The subcontractor accused of the fraud had pled guilty to all charges five years earlier and the culpability of the major aerospace companies in concealing the theft was the last significant legal matter to come to trial The three companies claimed that they had cooperated with government investigations into the 180 felony fraud violations and were not liable for the actions of the rogue subcontractor861

12 January Using NASArsquos Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spacecraft astronomers found significant proof that thousands of exploding stars had generated the halo of gas around Earthrsquos Milky Way possibly originating as the galaxy evolved The findings were among the first generated from the FUSE project and scientists hoped that they represented the first of many significant discoveries The halo surrounding the Milky Way had intrigued scientists for decades but researchers had been unable to shed light on how or why the gas formed as it did A team of astronomers presented the findings at the American Astronomical Society conference proclaiming the FUSE observatory ldquoopen for businessrdquo H Warren Moos of Johns Hopkins University Principal Investigator of the FUSE project stated that the ldquodebugging periodrdquo had concluded and that project managers had moved from fine-tuning the instrument to performing space observations The FUSE spectrograph had more than 100 times the power of previous instruments and many researchers hoped that it would allow more extensive investigation of the formation and collapse of stars⎯a research agenda that might eventually uncover the sequence of events that resulted in the formation of the Earth862

A National Research Council panel made up of climate and environment experts announced that it had found significant evidence to support the theory of global warming The panel found that the Earthrsquos surface had warmed at a rate substantially greater than average for the past millennium Panel Chairperson John M Wallace of the University of Washingtonrsquos Environment Program clarified the grouprsquos findings ldquoThe surface of the temperature is rising and has risen substantially in the past 20 yearsrdquo Wallace also carefully pointed out that the group had not addressed the issue of causation ldquoWe are not saying that the rise is due to greenhouse gases nor are we saying that it is going to continuerdquo The findings added to the ongoing debate over global

860 NASA ldquoGalileo Findings Boost Idea of Other-Worldly Oceanrdquo news release 00-7 10 January 2000 861 Associated Press ldquoGovernment Sues Three Companies Including Boeing North American over Space Shuttle Program Fraudrdquo 12 January 2000 862 NASA ldquoFUSE Spacecraft Observes Interstellar Lifeblood of Galaxiesrdquo news release 00-5 12 January 2000 John Noble Wilford ldquoScientists Are Gaining a New Understanding of the Dynamics of Galaxiesrdquo New York Times 12 January 2000 Reuters ldquoUSA Milky Wayrsquos Halo Caused by Exploding Stars⎯NASArdquo 12 January 2000

247


warming Not surprisingly environmental advocates praised the panelrsquos conclusions and global-warming critics dismissed them863

The Russian Space Agency announced another delay in the launch of the crew compartment for the International Space Station (ISS) after two Proton rockets exploded when metal and mineral particles contaminated their engines The Russian Space Agency had planned to use a Proton rocket to launch the ISS module The S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia which built the boosters promised to replace the Proton rocketrsquos faulty parts Funding problems had previously slowed construction of the crew compartment disrupting the timeline for the international project864

As a part of its ldquoCelebrate the Centuryrdquo program the US Postal Service unveiled a stamp commemorating the Space Shuttle Program The stamp with the Shuttlersquos image joined 12 other stamps with images recalling significant American memories of the past century such as video games the fall of the Berlin Wall personal computers and Cabbage Patch Dolls The Space Shuttle stamp was part of the celebration of the 1980s portion of the millennium Kennedy Space Center Director Roy D Bridges Jr issued a statement thanking the Postal Service for the honor865

13 January Astronomers using images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) discovered what they believed to be the first examples of ldquoisolated stellar-mass black holes adrift among the stars of our galaxyrdquo They announced their discovery at a convention of the American Astronomical Society The findings supported a long-standing theory that black holes could form with the collapse of just one massive star although an opposing theory had concluded that multiple stars must collapse in tandem Moreover the researchersrsquo contribution was the latest in a string of recent findings illuminating the relatively commonplace nature of black holes866

14 January Science and business leaders from the United States and Singapore signed an agreement to collaborate on biotechnology research conducted in space The pact focused on improving drugs and crops outlined experiments planned for a 2001 Shuttle Columbia mission US Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO) called the agreement an ldquoimportant step toward increasing scientific knowledgerdquo867

17 January NASA declared an end to its attempts to contact Mars Polar Lander which had descended to the Red Planetrsquos surface on 3 December 1999 The planned 90-day mission had derailed when

863 Robert Lee Hotz ldquoGlobal Warming Real Says National Panel of Climate Expertsrdquo Los Angeles Times 13 January 2000 Associated Press ldquoScientists Report Warmer Earth Cause Uncertainrdquo 12 January 2000 Arthur B Robinson ldquoGlobal Warming Is 300-Year-Old Newsrdquo Wall Street Journal 18 January 2000 864 Associated Press ldquoRussia Again Delays Launch of Space Station Unitrdquo 12 January 2000 Associated Press ldquoSpace Station Launch Delayedrdquo 12 January 2000 865 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Program Joins American Icons in Commemorative Stamp Collectionrdquo news release 0012 12 January 2000 866 NASA ldquoLone Black Holes Discovered Adrift in the Galaxyrdquo news release 00-4 13 January 2000 867 Associated Press ldquoSingapore US Scientists Sign Accord on Outer Space Researchrdquo 14 January 2000

shy

248


mission controllers at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) were unable to communicate with the probe after it landed Investigators had methodically tried different commands to reach Lander Meanwhile scientists and amateur space enthusiasts alike had offered a wide range of hypotheses concerning the cause of Landerrsquos silence speculating that Lander had exploded before actually reaching Marsrsquos surface or that it had simply sunk in the Martian dust After exhausting all means of contacting the probe NASA had declared the US$165 million mission concluded indicating that future missions would attempt to make up for the loss of Polar Lander Project Manager Richard A Cook expressed his sense of closure about the decision to stop investigating the matter ldquowe feel somewhat complete in the sense that we did go through the things we thought were reasonable we gave it a good shotrdquo868

24 January NASA released the first HST images taken after the Shuttlersquos Mission STS-103 in which the crew of Discovery realigned and refurbished the telescope The stunning clarity of the new images suggested that the mission specialists had succeeded in their sensitive work According to Steven Beckwith Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute the work returned HST to ldquoa condition that was better than it was even before the fourth gyroscope failedrdquo Astronomers had focused on targets more than 5000 light-years away to test the upgraded telescope During the servicing mission astronauts had also installed a Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 and a Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph new instruments that would contribute to the already formidable strength of the HST869

28 January NASA announced that the Food and Drug Administration had cleared for diagnostic use a new technology to fight breast cancer originally developed at JPL OmniCorder Technologies Inc had built the device called the BioScan System using a sensor developed by JPL researcher Sarath D Gunapala Gunapala had originally developed the sensor named the Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector to locate hot spots in fires and volcanoes When researchers had learned that the increased blood flow surrounding cancerous tissues often raises skin temperatures slightly medical scientists realized that doctors could use the technology to conduct noninvasive screenings helping to detect breast cancer The new device had charted temperature changes as slight as 0027degF (-18degC) from one area of the body to another making it a promising tool for doctors and cancer researchers870

NASA released the research results of astronaut John H Glenn Jrrsquos historic 1998 voyage aboard Shuttle Discovery The report detailed the 88 experiments conducted on Mission STS-95 the most of any Shuttle mission NASA responded to some critics who called the mission a publicity-driven flight with little scientific value disclosing that Glenn himself had participated in 10 experiments during the mission After becoming the first American to orbit the Earth in

868 Usha Lee McFarling ldquoNASA Gives Up Hope of Finding Mars Proberdquo Los Angeles Times 18 January 2000 Associated Press ldquoJPL To End Search Today for Mars Polar Landerrdquo 17 January 2000 USA Today ldquoNASA Quits Trying To Contact Missing Mars Polar Landerrdquo USA Today 18 January 2000 Associated Press ldquoReport Mars Lander May Have Touched Down in Steep Canyonrdquo 6 January 2000 869 NASA ldquoHubble Reopens Eye on the Universerdquo news release 00-16 24 January 2000 870 NASA ldquoBreast Cancer Screening Aid Cleared for Diagnostic Userdquo news release 00-17 28 January 2000

249


1962 Glenn had returned to space 36 years later to achieve another record⎯the oldest man to fly in space871

FEBRUARY 2000

2 February The publication Florida Today announced that astronaut Janice E Voss would carry aboard the next scheduled Endeavour flight a commemorative stuffed bear manufactured to raise money for victims of the shooting at the Columbine High School in Colorado Voss had agreed to the plan when students from Columbine visiting Kennedy Space Center as NASArsquos special guests explained their fund-raising goals NASA had invited the Columbine students to Cape Canaveral Florida to watch a Space Shuttle launch NASA also announced that at the conclusion of Vossrsquos mission it would donate to the still-recovering high school an official Endeavour flight kit Of the classrsquos trip to NASA to watch Endeavourrsquos launch a parent of one of the Columbine students said simply that it was ldquoa once-in-a-lifetime opportunityrdquo872

3 February In another escalation of the increasingly tense debate over how to handle Russiarsquos repeated delays in building and launching the service module of the International Space Station (ISS) NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced that if Russia did not meet a July 2000 deadline the United States would provide a substitute module Russia was already more than two years behind schedule affecting the ISSrsquos timeline and hampering the cooperative international effort Goldinrsquos decision followed Russiarsquos announcement of its plan to direct more resources to the failing Mir space station Some space experts perceived Russiarsquos designation of scarce financial funds to Mir rather than to the ISS as a signal of Russiarsquos reluctance to participate fully in the international space consortium In his strongest criticism to date Goldin said of Russiarsquos ISS involvement ldquoTo say we are frustrated and disappointed is an understatement We want the Russians to be there but we felt we had to be responsible custodians to keep the program on trackrdquo873

7 February President William J Clintonrsquos proposed budget for NASA was unveiled at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC The proposal contained none of the cutbacks that had driven the Clinton administrationrsquos previous NASA budgets instead calling for steady increases in funding for space exploration over a period of five years The key caveat however was that most of the increases were scheduled to be implemented after Clinton left office Most noteworthy the proposal set aside US$6 billion to begin research into designing a replacement for the Space Shuttle fleet Officials hoped that NASArsquos plan to build a reusable launch vehicle to replace the aging Shuttles would come to fruition around the year 2005874

871 Associated Press ldquoScientific Results of Glennrsquos Mission Released by NASArdquo 28 January 2000 872 Billy Cox ldquoEndeavour To Launch with Columbine Bearrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 2 February 2000 873 Warren E Leary ldquoNASA Dictates Date for Russia on Station Portrdquo New York Times 4 February 2000 Associated Press ldquoNASA Wersquoll Launch if Russia Failsrdquo 4 February 2000 874 Joseph C Anselmo ldquoNASA Funds Research for Shuttle Successorrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 152 no 7 (14 February 2000) 11minus12

250


NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced that NASA would merge the Office of the Chief Technologist and the Office of Aero-Space Technology to better facilitate NASArsquos technological advancements According to Goldin placing a range of issues from IT operation to technology-based research under the domain of a single leader would promote IT compatibility Goldin appointed Chief Technologist Samuel L Venneri to head the new Office giving Venneri the responsibility of developing a long-term strategy to keep NASA at the forefront of technological development Goldin also tasked Venneri with forging new relationships with companies using technologies similar to the type that NASA developed and used Venneri had been NASArsquos Chief Technologist since 1996875

8 February The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft set an astronomical record by facilitating the discovery of 102 comets The spacecraft featured a Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instrument that allowed astronomers to observe comets that previously would have been invisible Douglas A Biesecker an astronomer at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center was responsible for making 45 discoveries on his own According to the researchers working on the project SOHO had revealed far more suicidal comets (those plunging into the Sunrsquos atmosphere) and sungrazers (those that pass by the Sun) than scientists had previously expected to find The findings had practical implications as well By observing the patterns of comets as they circled collided and split scientists hoped that they might be better prepared to predict the behavior of a comet headed for Earth876

9 February Russia successfully launched a Soyuz test rocket equipped with a Fregat accelerator unit able to carry payloads into high orbit but lost the Fregat unit upon its reentry to Earth The rocket took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying only a dummy payload into space in a test that was part of Russiarsquos ongoing research into developing vehicles and technologies that would eventually serve the orbiting ISS877

More than 10000 white-collar workers walked off the job at the Boeing Company in protest over failed contract negotiations Most of the strikers came from the aerospace giantrsquos work site in Seattle Washington878

10 February In a much-anticipated launch the Astro-E satellite lifted off aboard an M-5 rocket from the Kagoshima Space Center on the Japanese island of Kyushu However soon after launch Astro-E was lost when the rocket suffered a ldquocontrol system breakdownrdquo propelling the satellite into a lower orbit than planned US officials monitoring the launch determined that the satellite had most likely burned up in Earthrsquos atmosphere Astro-E the product of a joint venture between the United States and Japan carried new x-rayndashsensing equipment which scientists had hoped would further illuminate the material surrounding black holes Scientists had designed the new

875 NASA ldquoGoldin Names Venneri To Head Merged Technology Aero-Space Office New Chief Engineer Appointedrdquo news release 00-21 7 February 2000 876 NASA ldquoSOHO Spacecraft Bags 102 Cometsrdquo news release 00-23 8 February 2000 877 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoRussia Tests Then Loses Rocket with Union for Higher Orbitrdquo 9 February 2000 878 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoThousands Walk Out on Boeing in Seattlerdquo 10 February 2000

251


equipment to sense minute changes in the heat of single protons The specialists overseeing the launch and mission had hoped that Astro-E would orbit and gather data for five years The satellite had cost more than US$100 million to develop879

11 February Shuttle Endeavour lifted off in Mission STS-99 planning to use new radar technology to map Earthrsquos terrain Crew included astronauts Kevin R Kregel Dominic L P Gorie Janet L Kavandi Janice E Voss Mamoru Mohri and Gerhard P J Thiele The astronauts planned to extend the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission antenna from Endeavourrsquos cargo bay The 197shyfoot (60-meter) antenna would gather mapping data necessary to create the most comprehensive map of Earth ever drawn NASA collaborated with the National Imagery and Mapping Agency in planning the mission and hoped to cover more than 70 percent of Earthrsquos surface during the 11-day mission880

14 February The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft successfully orbited the asteroid Eros 160 million miles (258 million kilometers) from Earth gathering close-up images of the craggy rock in the first successful orbit of a spacecraft around an asteroid The unique images revealed large boulders and craters on Eros Scientists noted with amusement that on the Valentinersquos Day encounter NEAR obtained images of a heart-shaped chasm on Eros NASA planned for NEAR to orbit Eros for about one year881

18 February NASA announced that a team of astronomers had discovered what they believed to be the earliest known structure ever to form in the universe The researchers had used the Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory in California and the National Science Foundationrsquos Mayall Telescope in Kitt Peake Arizona to find an ancient quasar By measuring the quasarrsquos redshift to determine how fast the quasar was moving away from the galaxy scientists had been able to calculate the cosmic distance separating Earth and the quasar The odds of discovering such a distant and relatively fast-moving quasar were remote especially since scientists could monitor only a fraction of the sky at any one time The discovery had the broader value of providing a reference point by which to assess those bodies between Earth and the quasar Daniel Stern of NASA described the findingrsquos utility ldquoFinding a quasar at this distance is like turning on a flashlight at the edge of the universerdquo882

At a ceremony at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs Colorado US Air Force General Ralph E Eberhart succeeded General Richard B Myers as the nationrsquos top military space official overseeing the US Space Command the US Air Force Space Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command in addition to thousands of troops and more

879 NASA ldquoJapanese-US Satellite Ushers in Golden Era of X-ray Astronomyrdquo news release 00-18 2 February 2000 Associated Press ldquoJapan Suffers Another Setback When Satellite Fails To Reach Orbitrdquo 10 February 2000 Justin Ray ldquoAstro-E Believed Lost Following Botched Launchrdquo Space Flight Now 10 February 2000 880 Associated Press ldquoEndeavour on Mission To Get Best Map of Earthrdquo 12 February 2000 881 NASA ldquoNEAR Begins Looking Closely at Erosrdquo news release 00-28 17 February 2000 Peter Kendall ldquoCameras Get Close-Up View of Asteroidrdquo Chicago Tribune 15 February 2000 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoRobot Spacecraft Successfully Orbits Asteroid Erosrdquo 14 February 2000 882 NASA ldquoNewfound Quasar Wins Title lsquoMost Distant in the Universersquordquo news release 00-30 18 February 2000

252


than 100 satellites Eberhart took over the US space operations post after having led the Air Forcersquos Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia883

19 February The American Museum of Natural Historyrsquos new Hayden Planetarium which had used information gathered from NASA and the European Space Agency to compile a database containing billions of stars opened to the public From 1935 to 1997 the New York City museum had hosted thousands of visitors annually with a less elaborate planetarium The new planetarium was only one part of the sparkling US$210 million Rose Center for Earth and Space which museum curator Michael M Shara hoped would inspire future scientists The facility resembling a spacecraft on the outside featured informative programming hosted by celebrities such as actors Tom Hanks and Jodie Foster As they walked through the new facility visitors could observe displays demonstrating how scientists believed the universe had evolved over a period of 13 billion years884

20 February By conserving fuel throughout their mission the astronauts aboard Shuttle Endeavour were able to prolong their time in space by one extra day allowing the crew to map the Earthrsquos terrain covering several million square miles more than they had originally estimated possible The extra 9 hours and 10 minutes of mapping allowed the radar flown from Endeavour to survey Australia in detail making up for time lost when a Shuttle thruster had failed885

22 February Shuttle Endeavour returned safely to Earth after a successful 11-day voyage The scientific community and the public greeted the Shuttlersquos return with even more fanfare than usual because the crew had obtained stunning images of Earth Endeavourrsquos six-person crew had worked nearly around the clock keeping radar antennas running to compile the data for three-dimensional digital maps of Earthrsquos surface The crew had gathered more than 300 digital tapes of radar data during the mission which NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin called ldquoone of the most challenging difficult missions we ever undertookrdquo The mission had successfully mapped 435 million square miles (113 million square kilometers) of Earthrsquos terrain NASA and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency expected that transferring the data into readable maps would take between one and two years NASA had obtained the images primarily for the US Department of Defense to improve the accuracy of missiles and to assist in navigation for military planes and troops886

23 February NASA Inspector General Roberta L Gross reported that the Boeing Company would have to forfeit most of its profit from the ISS contract because of its nearly US$1 billion in cost overruns NASArsquos incentive-laden contract with Boeing allowed for significant bonuses for meeting

883 Tom Breen ldquoUS Gets New Military Space Chiefrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 19 February 2000 884 Associated Press ldquoMuseum Unveils Planetarium for the 21 Centuryrdquo 2 February 2000 885 Associated Press ldquoEndeavour Squeezes in Extra Mapping Dayrdquo 21 February 2000 886 Associated Press ldquoEndeavour Returns with Dazzling Images of the Home Planetrdquo 22 February 2000 Los Angeles Times ldquoEndeavourrsquos Astronauts End Earth-Mapping Workrdquo 22 February 2000 Chicago Tribune ldquoMission Map the Earthrdquo 22 February 2000

253


timeline and cost limits NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin had ordered an audit of the NASA-Boeing contract in 1999 because projected cost overages had continued to rise Nonetheless as Boeing neared completion of the construction of its portion of the ISS both NASA and the aerospace giant were optimistic that cost overruns had stabilized and that the space station hardware would perform well in space887

MARCH 2000

3 March NASArsquos Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland Ohio opened a new laboratory dedicated to the study of ballistics The laboratory housed in the complexrsquos Building 49 featured a 40-foot (12-meter) gas gun that could shoot projectiles at speeds of up to 1500 feet (4572 meters) per second A camera with the ability to capture 25 million images per second allowed researchers to observe the behavior of the projectiles and chart the results of their impact on aviation equipment ldquoThe whole ideardquo Team Leader Dale A Hopkins explained ldquois to watch the impact and see how materials struck by the projectiles behave not just whether they survive but how they deform and failrdquo GRC had designed the new facility to test materials used for aircraft engine housings and for flywheel containment Researchers hoped that the new tools would help engineer aircraft that could withstand the pressures of high-speed and high-altitude flight better than those already available could GRC had been testing ballistic materials since 1980888

7 March Chester M Lee who had served as Mission Director for six Apollo Missions to the Moon including Apollo 13 died from complications of open-heart surgery Lee had begun his 23-year career with NASA in 1965 after retiring from the US Navy specializing primarily on the Apollo Missions He had also served as Program Director for the 1973ndash1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project the first joint venture between the United States and the former Soviet Union889

8 March A National Academy of Sciences task force issued a report supporting the development and deployment of the Triana research satellite proposed by Vice President Albert A Gore Jr Congress had authorized the task force in 1999 to investigate the feasibility of Gorersquos plan which called for a satellite to orbit Earth continuously capturing live pictures of the planet Gore believed that obtaining the images and making them available on the Internet would increase public awareness of environmental issues The proposal had sparked a political controversy between Gore and the Republican Congress prompting Congress to demand that a task force investigate the value of the project The task force reported that the satellite had scientific merit White House science advisor Neal Lane praised the studyrsquos results urging House members to act with ldquobipartisan Congressional supportrdquo The process of investigation and approval of the project had drawn public attention to the political debate about space exploration890

887 Tony Capaccio ldquoBoeing Overruns on Space Station Near $1Billionrdquo Los Angeles Times 23 February 2000 888 NASA ldquoNew Lab Ready To Test Sudden Impactrdquo news release 00-34 3 March 2000 889 Associated Press ldquoChet Lee Former NASA Worker Dies at 80rdquo 7 March 2000 Los Angeles Times ldquoObituaries Chester Lee Navy Captain Apollo Mission Directorrdquo 9 March 2000 890 Warren E Leary ldquoScience Panel Supports Gore Satellite Planrdquo New York Times 9 March 2000 Associated Press ldquoPanel Finds Merit in Space Mission Proposed by Gorerdquo 8 March 2000

254


9 March An independent study commissioned by NASA in the wake of the highly public failures of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander found that cost-cutting measures had created significant risks for NASArsquos Shuttle program Although the report maintained that the overall safety of NASArsquos operations remained within an acceptable range the investigators warned that the use of contractors and the lack of oversight compromised the quality of NASArsquos missions NASArsquos chief of the Office of Space Flight accepted the reportrsquos recommendations to improve NASArsquos operations also noting however that NASA had already investigated and dealt with many of the weaknesses highlighted in the report With budgetary matters always a pressing concern NASA had made various necessary reductions in personnel relying on companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin more than ever NASA had initiated the investigation to understand more fully the impact of the changes on NASArsquos highest priority⎯the safety of its astronauts891

10 March In an article in the journal Science a team of researchers led by Maria T Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported that they had found compelling evidence that Mars once had a wet climate According to Zuber ldquoEvidence is building of more water on the surface of Mars at one timerdquo The researchers had used the laser measurements taken by Mars Global Surveyor to reach their conclusions Although Zuber indicated that scientists did not yet have enough evidence to determine whether Mars once had a surface ocean the study did find large buried channels beneath the planetrsquos crust suggesting that an enormous flow of water once deluged the landscape The researchers had also found further evidence of two distinct ldquocrustal provincesrdquo on Mars similar to those on Earth The team estimated that Marsrsquos crust was 50 miles (80 kilometers) thick beneath the planetrsquos southern highlands but only 22 miles (35 kilometers) thick beneath the northernmost areas of the planet By using Surveyorrsquos data to analyze thoroughly the topography of the planet the research team had also drawn the conclusion that Mars had once been home to more water than ice The variety of landmasses suggested that for a period the planetrsquos core had released heat turning ice trapped beneath Marsrsquos surface into water As one newspaper described the formative events estimated to have taken place approximately 4 billion years ago ldquoIt steamed and streamedrdquo892

13 March The Sea Launch Company suffered a setback in its bid to become a major participant in the satellite launch industry when one of its Russian-Ukrainian Zenit 3SL rockets carrying a British communications satellite crashed into the Pacific Ocean The launch was only the third undertaken by the international company which had planned to use a converted ocean oil rig known as Odyssey as its permanent launchpad The Sea Launch Company comprised the Boeing Company together with companies from Russia Ukraine and Norway The company had designed its innovative Sea Launch System to use Earthrsquos rotation and the faster movement of

891 Associated Press ldquoNASA Says Shuttle Cuts Have Led to Higher Riskrdquo 10 March 2000 Los Angeles Times ldquoStudy Raises Concerns About Shuttle Safetyrdquo 13 March 2000 892 Marie T Zuber et al ldquoInternal Structure and Early Thermal Evolution of Mars from Mars Global Surveyor Topography and Gravityrdquo Science 287 no 5459 (10 March 2000) 1788minus1893 NASA ldquoView Inside Mars Reveals Rapid Cooling and Buried Channelsrdquo news release 00-36 9 March 2000 Dan Vergano ldquoNorthern Mars Once Was Drenchedrdquo USA Today 13 March 2000

255


Earthrsquos surface at the equator to make it easier to launch rockets with heavy payloads The failed satellite had cost London-based ICO Global Communications more than US$100 million to develop893

14 March NASA announced that it had renamed the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft already orbiting asteroid 433 (Eros) after Eugene M Shoemaker an expert in the study of asteroid craters and their origins who died in 1997 Shoemakerrsquos work on Meteor Crater in Arizona during the 1960s had set the standard for crater investigation Shoemaker had worked for NASA teaching astronauts about meteors and craters He died in the Australian outback while researching asteroid-impact craters894

16 March NASA dedicated a new aerospace laboratory at Anne Beers Elementary School in Washington DC featuring a simulated Shuttle cockpit and Mission Control Center NASA had named the facility designed to encourage student interest in space exploration for US Representative Louis Stokes (D-OH) who had proposed legislation to fund the endeavor in 1998 NASArsquos GRC and Goddard Space Flight Center had worked with the Orchard Glenn School of Cleveland Ohio and the University of the District of Columbia to construct the innovative facility895

17 March The US General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report stating that the Russian components for the International Space Station (ISS) did not meet NASArsquos standard safety requirements GAOrsquos findings were the latest in a long series of controversies particularly between the United States and Russia in the international effort to build the space station Most significant of its safety deficits the Russian crew module did not have adequate shielding to protect the ISS crew from orbiting space debris At the time of the report the Russians were already more than two years behind in delivering the crew module896

21 March During routine testing in preparation for a July 2000 launch excessive vibration damaged NASArsquos High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Images (HESSI) spacecraft The vibration test device was accidentally set at a level 10 times higher than appropriate causing structural damage and cracks in two of the satellitersquos four solar arrays Officials estimated that the damage would delay the planned launch by at least six months NASA had designated about US$75 million for the project The faulty test occurring at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory revealed the high degree of precision required of engineers when creating and testing a space-bound craft Although the satellite had vibrated at the incorrect setting for only about 200 milliseconds it still sustained

893 Associated Press ldquoSea Launch Satellite Falls into Ocean Boeing-Led Venture Out $100 millionrdquo 13 March 2000 894 NASA ldquoNASA Renames NEAR Spacecraft for Planetary Science Pioneer Gene Shoemakerrdquo news release 14 March 2000 895 NASA ldquoAerospace Laboratory Encourages Students To Reach for the Stars with NASA Helprdquo news release m00-051 15 March 2000 896 Patty Reinhert ldquoSpace Station Safety at Center of Debaterdquo Houston Chronicle 17 March 2000 Associated Press ldquoGeneral Accounting Office Slams Russian Modulesrdquo 17 March 2000

256


damage However the project engineers were optimistic that the mission would resume eventually897

29 March Planet sleuths Geoffrey W Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley and Steven S Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz announced the discovery of two very small planets outside Earthrsquos solar system Smaller in mass than Saturn the planets resided approximately 100 light-years from Earth Although Marcy and Vogt had concluded that the planets were very hot and that neither planet was capable of supporting life their discovery reinforced the long-standing theory that planets form by ldquosnowball effectrdquo growing from smaller to larger as well as suggesting that many other stars in the galaxy might harbor small planets To make their discovery the astronomers had used the W M Keck Observatory in Hawaii in one phase of a multiyear project to observe stars within 300 light-years of Earth898

30 March Engineers at NASArsquos Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) successfully tested a prototype for the ldquoflying lifeboatrdquo that would transport astronauts to and from the ISS DFRC officials launched a robotic X-38 from under the wing of a B-52 flying at 39000 feet (12000 meters) It free fell for more than 40 seconds before deploying a 5500-square-foot (511-square-meter) parachute which provided a soft landing for the spacecraft The test was a significant step in evaluating the technology planned for the crew return vehicle a low-cost ISS initiative899

31 March The National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) released the results of a survey indicating that NASA employees had the highest level of job satisfaction among federal government employees NASA employees rated very favorably in the categories of employee job satisfaction customer orientation making reinvention a priority management communication and employee participation in cross-functional teams NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced the surveyrsquos findings stating ldquoI am incredibly proud of these results They represent a strong statement of the top-to-bottom excellence of the NASA teamrdquo NPR and the Office of Personnel Management administered the survey to understand employeesrsquo perspectives on ldquoreinvention and workplace issuesrdquo When informed of NASArsquos outstanding score Keith Cowing the editor of Nasawatchcom remarked ldquoIrsquom not at all surprised I used to work there I loved my jobrdquo900

APRIL 2000

4 April

897 Associated Press ldquoNASA Engineers Damage Satellite During Shake Testrdquo 24 March 2000 NASA ldquoHESSI Sustains Damage During Vibration Testingrdquo news release 00-45 24 March 2000 898 NASA ldquoPlanet Hunters on Trail of Worlds Smaller than Saturnrdquo news release 00-47 29 March 2000 John Noble Wilford ldquo2 Relatively Small Planets Are Foundrdquo New York Times 30 March 2000 Dan Vergano ldquoOther Worldly Discoveryrdquo USA Today 30 March 2000 899 Associated Press ldquoSpace Station lsquoLifeboatrsquo Prototype Successfully Testedrdquo 30 March 2000 900 NASA ldquoSurvey Shows NASA Employees Among Most Satisfied Federal Workersrdquo news release 00-52 31 March 2000

257


Russian cosmonauts Sergei V Zalyotin and Alexander Y Kaleri launched from Earth aboard Soyuz TM-30 headed for the Mir space station In their planned two-month mission more than seven months after the last crew members had left the high-maintenance spacecraft the men aimed to restore Mir to working order Many experts had assumed that Mirrsquos days as an active space research center were finished when the previous crew of cosmonauts left the station Although unable to pay to keep cosmonauts aboard Mir Russia was still hoping to obtain funding to keep the space station in operation and had not taken it out of orbit When the Netherlands-based MirCorp had agreed to pay US$20 million to lease the Russian-owned station Russia had scrambled to put together a crew for a repair mission The departure of Soyuz caused some concern in the international space community once again raising speculation regarding Russiarsquos commitment to the International Space Station901

5 April NASA awarded its Commercial and Government Inventions of the Year awards Inventors Anne K St Clair Terry L St Clair and William P Winfree working as a research team at NASArsquos Langley Research Center won the award for inventing a material that they had named Colorless and Low Dielectric Polyimide Thin Film Commercial manufacturers could apply the thermoplastic material to many types of surfaces to protect against ultraviolet radiation and high temperatures The researchers also suggested adding the material to liquids such as paints and cosmetics to provide ultraviolet protection Douglas B Leviton received the Government Inventor of the Year award for his Ultra-High Sensitivity Incremental and Absolute Optical Position Encoder The encoder allowed scientists to calibrate space-bound instruments more accurately than they had done previously Both awards recognized inventions completed during 1999 NASA honored the recipients at a ceremony presenting them with plaques and cash awards902

NASA released a comprehensive new study which found that the levels of ozone in the Arctic stratosphere were declining rapidly In some parts of the stratosphere the atmosphere had lost 60 percent of its ozone over the course of one year The report compiled by hundreds of European and American scientists also demonstrated that changes in the global climate (primarily global warming) threatened to delay the recovery of the ozone layer The scientists were optimistic that the ozone layer would recover eventually but perhaps not until the mid-21st century The study had cost NASA more than US$20 million and the European scientists contributed US$10 million The researchers had gathered data using satellites airplanes and hundreds of weather balloons903

6 April Soyuz successfully docked with the unoccupied Mir space station At the last minute cosmonauts Sergei V Zalyotin and Alexander Y Kaleri docked Soyuz manually because Russian space

901 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoCosmonauts Head to Mir Todayrdquo 4 April 2000 Des Moines Register (IA) 5 April 2000 902 NASA ldquoNASA Selected Its Commercial and Government Inventions of the Yearrdquo news release 00-53 5 April 2000 903 Knight-Ridder News Service ldquoThinning Ozone over Arctic Raises Concernsrdquo 6 April 2000 William K Stevens ldquoNew Survey Shows Growing Loss of Arctic Atmospherersquos Ozonerdquo New York Times 6 April 2000

258


officials feared the autopilot was about to malfunction The cosmonauts planned to concentrate on plugging a small air leak and conducting several scientific experiments during a spacewalk904

In two Nature articles research teams announced that through independent research they had discovered the same result the Ulysses spacecraft had passed through the longest comet tail ever discovered Although the Ulysses vehicle had made its unintended discovery in 1996 when it passed through the tail of Comet Hyakutake scientists had taken four years to confirm the discovery The scientists concluded that Ulysses had discovered a comet tail approximately 300 million miles (483 million kilometers) long ldquoThe discovery was made quite by accident a bit like finding a needle in a haystack when you werenrsquot even looking for it in the first placerdquo was how one project member described the fortunate discovery Ulysses a joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency had launched in 1990 to study solar winds and rays not comets However the spacecraft had picked up some unusual readings during its mission which turned out to be signs of Hyakutakersquos tail extending much farther than previously estimated905

NASA announced that follow-up studies had determined that the distant mass known as TMRshy1C discovered in 1997 was probably not a protoplanet⎯a young still-forming precursor of one of the giant planets In 1998 astronomer Susan Terebey of the Extrasolar Research Corporation had published findings suggesting that the body was a protoplanet several times larger than Jupiter Terebeyrsquos research had received widespread attention However although NASA had released the images of TMR-1C captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) NASA had urged scientists to obtain further verification before identifying the body as a protoplanet After observing the body over several months astronomers had concluded that TMR-1C was a bright star rather than a planet Reflective dust had likely increased the brightness of the star located approximately 135 billion miles (217 billion kilometers) from Earth making it appear to be a planet After her initial high-profile announcement Terebey had continued to study the star using the W M Keck Observatory in Hawaii and had amended her own hypothesis reporting ldquothe new data do not lend weight to the protoplanet interpretation and the results remain consistent with the explanation that TMR-1C may be a background starrdquo Most newspapers gave as much coverage to the news of the changing assessment as they had given to the original discovery906

15 April Princeton University graduate student Xiaohui Fan discovered a distant quasar that scientists believed to be the oldest object ever observed by a human being Fan had worked as part of a team using the 32-foot (10-meter) W M Keck Telescope Estimating that the quasar was 12

904 Associated Press ldquoLatest Space Crew Docks Flawlessly with Mir Space Stationrdquo 6 April 2000 905 Geraint H Jones et al ldquoIdentification of Comet Hyakutakersquos Extremely Long Ion Tail from Magnetic Field Signaturesrdquo Nature 404 no 6778 (6 April 2000) 574 G Gloeckler et al ldquoInterception of Comet Hyakutakersquos Ion Tail at a Distance of 500 Million Kilometersrdquo Nature 404 no 6778 (6 April 2000) 576 NASA ldquoStrangers in the Night Ulysses Spacecraft Meets a Cometrdquo news release 00-55 5 April 2000 Associated Press ldquoSolar Probe Finds Longest Comet Tail Ever Recordedrdquo 10 April 2000 906 James Glanz ldquoScientists Retract Claim of Planet Discoveryrdquo New York Times 7 April 2000 Associated Press ldquoPresumed Protoplanet May Be a Background Starrdquo 7 April 2000 NASA ldquoSuspected Protoplanet May Really Be a Distant Starrdquo news release 00-58 6 April 2000

259


billion years old astronomers expressed their excitement that the benchmark discovery would enable them to observe the universe in its formative stages907

18 April The United States and Brazil signed a treaty giving US aerospace firms access to Brazilrsquos Alcacircntara launch site located just 3deg south of the equator The treaty was the first accord signed by the United States that allowed US satellites to launch from foreign soil The launch sitersquos location near the center of the globe would save money for aerospace companies because satellites could take a shorter path to equatorial orbit requiring less fuel Brazil benefited from the boost to its embryonic space program and the possibility of capturing a portion of the lucrative commercial-satellite business At the time of the agreement US firms controlled two-thirds of the annual US$66 billion commercial satellite industry908

19 April After completing four months of on-orbit checkout and verification Terra the newest in NASArsquos series of Earth Observing System Satellites became functional NASA had developed and launched Terra to monitor Earthrsquos atmosphere on a daily basis Researchers hoped that gathering frequent data would allow a more comprehensive assessment of Earthrsquos climate change According to Yoram J Kaufman Project Scientist for Terra at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) ldquoTerra is measuring and documenting the Earthrsquos vital signs many of them for the first timerdquo In the midst of public and scholarly discussions of global warming and climate change the new research satellite was a step toward understanding the causes of the changes ldquoThe data will help us understand our planet aid in our distinguishing between natural and human-induced changes and show us how the Earthrsquos climate affects the quality of our livesrdquo Kaufman clarified The satellitersquos first transmitted images thrilled scientists The satellite surveyed North America creating images in many different layers to reveal how different levels of population and types of vegetation affected the climate NASA officials planned to make the images obtained by Terra available to business scientists and the public909

20 April NASA revealed what it called ldquothe first detailed images of the early universerdquo captured by the Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics (BOOMERANG) experiment For the BOOMERANG experiment scientists had suspended a powerful telescope from a research balloon circumnavigating the Antarctic Andrew E Lange of California Institute of Technology called the experiment and the resulting images ldquoan incredible triumph of modern cosmologyrdquo For the most part the data obtained by closely measuring variations in the microwave background radiation confirmed scientistsrsquo existing theory that in its earliest days the universe was flatter than it is today According to this theory confirmed by other evidence besides these images the universe is flat and forever expanding In summarizing the significance

907 Associated Press ldquoQuasar Discovered by Student May Be Most Distant Ever Seenrdquo 15 April 2000 Kevin Coughlin ldquoYoung Princeton Expert Finds Piece of a Fledgling Universerdquo Star-Ledger (Newark NJ) 14 April 2000 Washington Post ldquoMost Distant Object Observedrdquo 17 April 2000 908 Reuters ldquoBrazil Joins Space Race with US Satellite Treatyrdquo 17 April 2000 Peter Fritsch ldquoBrazil To Sign US Accord To Enter Satellite Businessrdquo Wall Street Journal 18 April 2000 909 NASA ldquoTerra Spacecraft Open for Businessrdquo news release 00-62 19 April 2000 NASA ldquoNew Views of Earth from Terra Satellite Wednesdayrdquo news release N00-16 18 April 2000

260


of the experiment one Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher stated ldquoitrsquos confirmation of the prediction of our best theory of what caused the structure of the universerdquo910

24 April NASA and the science community celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the deployment of the HST During its decade in space the HST had enabled astronomers to make hundreds of discoveries According to NASA the HSTrsquos ldquorapid-fire rate of discoveries and cosmic images has profoundly changed the science of astronomy and astounded and inspired people around the worldrdquo The US Postal Service and NASA unveiled a series of five stamps designed to commemorate the HSTrsquos decade of contributions The images on the stamps would not have been possible without the HSTrsquos power which enabled it to capture images of the Eagle Nebula Ring Nebula Lagoon Nebula Egg Nebula and Galaxy NGC 1316 NASA held a series of events to celebrate the anniversary Hubblersquos 10 years in space had not begun smoothly as many critics of the program had been quick to point out As the Baltimore Sun remembered the HST was ldquoonce the butt of late-night talk-show jokesrdquo because a flawed mirror initially had prevented the telescope from focusing However after a series of costly repairs the HST had produced a litany of awe-inspiring images The HST made more than 271000 observations in its first 10 years with another decade of usefulness anticipated HST Project Scientist David S Leckrone of NASArsquos GSFC summarized the HSTrsquos impact ldquoNot since Galileo aimed a small 30-power telescope into the night sky in 1609 has humanityrsquos vision of the universe been so revolutionized in such a short time span by a single instrumentrdquo911

25 April NASA announced that a team of scientists had used the Chandra X-ray Observatory to solve one of astronomyrsquos fundamental problems⎯determining the distance from Earth to a cosmic object Peter Predehl the lead researcher on the project had found that by scattering x-rays between Earth and a given object the dust grains and scattered materials between the two points could serve as measuring posts to determine the distance covered by the x-ray Because of the Chandra Observatoryrsquos superior resolution and strength particles that scientists could not otherwise have observed would serve as points of context Researchers were confident that they could use the new approach to help determine the size of nearby galaxies Furthermore the newly devised means of measuring the distance between objects and Earth had implications for understanding the universe and its age912

MAY 2000

1 May In delivering the Louisiana State University Chancellorrsquos Distinguished Lecture NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced that ldquoin no less than 10 and no more than 20 yearsrdquo US astronauts would land on Mars Proclaiming that Mars was NASArsquos next frontier Goldin

910 Associated Press ldquoScientists Reveal First Detailed Images of Early Universerdquo 27 April 2000 NASA ldquoThe Universe in Its Infancy New Findings Unveiled at News Briefingrdquo news release N00-17 20 April 2000 911 NASA ldquoApril 24 Marks a Triumphant Ten Years in Space for Hubble Telescoperdquo news release 00-59 11 April 2000 NASA ldquoNASA US Postal Service To Celebrate Hubble Space Telescope 10th Anniversary with Stamp Unveiling and Other Eventsrdquo news release N00-14 4 April 2000 Frank D Roylance ldquoHubble Goes from Flop to Star Once the Butt of Jokes Telescope Now Thrills with Space Imagesrdquo Baltimore Sun (MD) 21 April 2000 912 NASA ldquoChandra Shows New Way To Measure Cosmic Distancesrdquo news release 00-66 25 April 2000

261


stated that the Red Planet held special promise for researchers The possible presence of water and other signs of life on Mars intrigued scientists making a Mars landing a priority for NASA In addition because scientists have estimated that the two planets are roughly the same age the exploration of Mars could lead to new information about Earth Goldin made his remarks in the aftermath of the high-profile crash of Mars Polar Lander913

NASA announced the creation of a new office dedicated to improving heath and safety for its workforce NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin appointed Dr Arnauld E Nicogossian as Chief Health and Medical Officer giving him the responsibility for developing programs to research and implement the best medical procedures for astronauts and other NASA personnel ldquoOn the ground and in space rapid advances in medical knowledge and tools need to be adapted and incorporated into our planning and practicesrdquo Goldin said when announcing the new position Nicogossian faced the task of establishing NASArsquos Health Council in keeping with NASArsquos commitment to making heath and safety its number-one priority914

2 May The Carrier Test Pilot Hall of Honor aboard the USS Yorktown inducted US Senator John H Glenn Jr honoring him for his distinguished aviation career before becoming an astronaut Before Glenn became the first man to orbit Earth he had already achieved a long record of flight exploits Glennrsquos fellow test pilot Neil A Armstrong the first astronaut to walk on the Moon attended the induction Upon receiving the award Glenn expressed his gratitude at joining the distinguished ranks of the Hall of Honor and spoke of his lifetime of flight experiences915

3 May The ldquoLove Bugrdquo computer virus infected the computer system of NASA along with those of the Pentagon the CIA Microsoft Corporation Ford Motor Company and other major business and government offices Considered one of the most damaging and costly computer viruses in history ldquoLove Bugrdquo spread primarily through e-mail messages corrupting files on millions of computers Four of NASArsquos 10 space centers suffered from the attack causing both Johnson Space Center (JSC) and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to shut down e-mail and other communication between computers916

News reached the United States that space debris had crashed to the ground near Johannesburg South Africa prompting NASA to respond Several metal balls had fallen from the sky leaving 8-inch (20-centimeter) dents in the ground NASA scientists clarified that the debris probably came from a Delta rocket launched in 1996 Chief Scientist for Orbital Debris Nicholas L Johnson explained that manufactured objects sent into space plummet back to Earth nearly every day landing mostly in the ocean Johnson also stated that NASA would compensate anyone hurt by the falling debris remarking that no such injuries had occurred in more than 40 years917

913 Associated Press ldquoRed Planet Is Next Frontierrdquo 2 May 2000 914 NASA ldquoNASA Creates New Office To Foster Heath and Safetyrdquo news release 00-69 1 May 2000 915 Associated Press ldquoGlenn Honored for Test Pilotrsquos Role as Armstrong Watchesrdquo 3 May 2000 916 Los Angeles Times ldquoFast Moving Virus Hits Computers Worldwiderdquo 5 May 2000 917 Associated Press ldquoHail of Metal Balls Puzzles Farmers Until NASA Steps Inrdquo 3 May 2000

262


NASA successfully launched the GOES-L satellite aboard an Atlas 2A rocket from Cape Canaveral Florida The new weather satellite would provide the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with detailed readings on severe weather systems affecting the United States NASA deemed the GOES-L satellite a top priority because of the declining returns of the aging GOES-8 satellite NASA had delayed the US$220 million satellite project because of engine problems causing anxiety to weather forecasters who depended on the satellites to track the powerful hurricanes that affected the United States in 1999 As Director of the National Weather Servicersquos Southern Region William Proenza explained ldquoIt is vitally important that we have continuity of data or we may be finding ourselves impaired in our ability of forecastingrdquo NASA had kept the May 2000 launch of the GOES-L on track despite some calls to postpone it so that NASA could launch Shuttle Atlantis on an urgent repair mission to the International Space Station (ISS) However NASA officials had determined that the risk of inadequate weather forecasting was too great to take a chance on delaying the launch918

4 May Nature published a letter from physicist Leonard Reiffel revealing that during the Cold War in the 1950s the United States had funded a research program focused on detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon part of a plan to demonstrate the strength of the US military The Armour Research Foundation⎯now a part of Illinois Institute of Technology⎯had directed the project known as A Study of Lunar Research Flights Astronomer Carl Sagan then a young graduate student had worked on the project As Reiffel explained Cold War politics had dramatically affected science agendas during the period ldquoThere was lots of talk on the part of the Air Force about the [M]oon being lsquomilitary high groundrsquordquo The scenario had called for the US Air Force to launch a small nuclear device from an undisclosed location and detonate it on the Moon Those planning the detonation had selected an atomic bomb because a hydrogen explosive would have been too heavy for a rocket to carry 238000 miles (383000 kilometers) to the lunar landing spot Military leaders eventually called off the plan because of concern that during the building and launch of the bomb a nuclear accident could occur on Earth919

Astronomers using the telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico captured the first-ever images of the so-called Metal Dog Bone asteroid officially named 216 Kleopatra Scientists had categorized the asteroid as a main-belt asteroid theorizing that the New Jerseyndashsized rock was the result of an ancient violent collision Steven Ostro of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory called the find ldquoone of the most unusual asteroids wersquove seen in the [s]olar [s]ystemrdquo Scientists made the discovery by bouncing radar signals off the asteroid and cataloging the signalsrsquo echoes By gathering a comprehensive collection of echoes the research team had been able to assemble a computer model of the asteroidrsquos shape The use of radar signals with a moderately powered telescope had made the long-distance discovery possible Ostro marveled at the technology describing the find as akin to ldquousing a Los Angeles telescope the size of the human eyersquos lens to image a car in New Yorkrdquo Many of the astronomers working on the project spoke of their

918 Associated Press ldquoNASA Launches Hurricane-Tracking Satelliterdquo 3 May 2000 Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News ldquoWeather Satellite Has Successful Launch Heads for Orbitrdquo 3 May 2000 919 Leonard Reiffel ldquoSagan Breached Security by Revealing US Work on a Lunar Bomb Projectrdquo Nature 405 no 6782 (4 May 2000) 13minus14 Associated Press ldquoPhysicist Says US Contemplated Detonating an Atom Bomb on the Moonrdquo 18 May 2000

263


amazement at the size shape and metallic complexion of the asteroid They also clarified that the asteroid posed no danger to Earth920

5 May Laurence Vico released a study on astronautsrsquo loss of bone density because of time spent in space Vico and his team of researchers had examined the bone-mineral density of 15 cosmonauts who had spent from one to six months aboard the Mir space station They had found a ldquostrikingrdquo loss of bone density in some cases as serious as that experienced by paraplegic patients The team of doctors suggested that physicians should examine astronauts more closely for susceptibility to bone-weakening conditions such as osteoporosis before they traveled into space and that postflight recovery periods should be much longer than previous standards dictated The sample study found that astronauts experienced an average bone-density loss of more than 5 percent and that the lost bone did not immediately regenerate after postflight recovery periods Scientists had long been aware of the physical challenges posed by the lack of gravity in the space environment Therefore NASA and the space agencies of other countries had carefully dictated diet and exercise programs for astronauts The study had special relevance however because the international space community was continuing work on the ISS and anticipating even longer stays in space921

12 May The board appointed to investigate the mishap that had damaged the High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI) spacecraft in preflight testing announced its findings The investigators had discovered that the computer controlling the vibration device had sensed an abnormally high level of static friction and had responded by delivering approximately 10 times the exertion of gravity suitable for the test A slight misalignment of the shaker mechanism had proved just enough to throw off the preflight testing The board had determined that the accident had been avoidable Routine maintenance and a pretest of the testing device itself would have caught the problem before any damage had occurred NASA planned for the HESSI satellite to undergo repairs at the University of California at Berkeley922

Cosmonauts Sergei V Zalyotin and Alexander Y Kaleri conducted a 5-hour spacewalk to repair tiny cracks weakening the hull of the Mir space station The cracks the result of the June 1997 collision of a cargo craft with the station had caused the module to lose air pressure steadily The spacewalk was not the first attempt to solve the problem but previous teams had been unable to locate the cracks Zalyotin and Kaleri tested a new ldquocosmic version of super gluerdquo designed to seal the fractures even in the harsh environment of space The Russian Space Agency clarified that the cracks were not crippling to the space station and that the crew could maintain acceptable levels of air pressure by manipulating oxygen outflow inside Mir However the agency hoped to solve the problem permanently because Russia planned to use the aging space station for commercial purposes The Netherlands-based MirCorp which had committed nearly

920 NASA ldquoAstronomers Catch Images of Giant Metal Dog Bone Asteroidrdquo news release 00-74 4 May 2000 921 Birmingham Post (AL) ldquoSerious Bone Loss for Cosmonauts Not Mir Speculationrdquo 5 May 2000 922 NASA ldquoBoard Finds Cause of HESSI Mishaprdquo news release 00-80 12 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoNASA Identifies Causes of Test Accident that Broke Spacecraftrdquo 12 May 2000

264


US$20 million to leasing Mir observed the cosmonautsrsquo activities calling the mission the first privately funded spacewalk in history923

19 May Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida on Mission STS-101 bound for the ISS The seven-astronaut crew comprised Americans⎯James D Halsell Jr Scott J Horowitz Susan J Helms James S Voss Mary Ellen Weber and Jeffrey N Williams⎯and Russian cosmonaut Yury V Usachev The crew planned to make repairs to the space station focusing primarily on replacing four malfunctioning solar-powered batteries The crew also planned to use the thrusters of the Shuttle to realign the ISSrsquos orbit Having been unoccupied and underpowered for nearly a year the station had fallen below the optimal orbiting altitude The station had gradually descended at a rate of about 15 miles (24 kilometers) per week The Shuttle mission plan also called for Atlantisrsquos crew to repair a damaged radio antenna and stabilize a shaky construction crane mounted on the outside of the ISS Because of volatile weather in April 2000 and a full docket of rocket launches NASA had delayed Atlantisrsquos launch three times pushing the Shuttlersquos liftoff into mid-May Russian cosmonaut Yury V Usachev a veteran of two tenures aboard Mir had spent more time in space than the rest of Atlantisrsquos crew combined924

22 May Astronauts Jeffrey N Williams and James S Voss conducted a 6-hour spacewalk to make repairs to the ISS The pair successfully repaired the stationrsquos construction crane replaced a failed antenna and began installing a much larger Russian-built crane designed to aid workers in adding the final modules to the ISS NASA officials highlighted the exercise as a precursor of the maintenance schedule to come ldquoThis spacewalk was a good example of what future spacewalks are going to look like where we will need to perform maintenance on the space stationrdquo The spacewalk occurred after Atlantis had docked at the space station but while the hatch doors between the two spacecraft remained shut925

23 May Shuttle Atlantis commanded by James D Halsell Jr began boosting the ISS into a higher orbit By firing its steering jets 27 times during a 1-hour push Shuttle Atlantis raised the space station about 9 miles (14 kilometers) farther from Earth than it had been The effort was the first of three planned realignment maneuvers NASA officials wanted to allow Atlantisrsquos thrusters to have a day to cool down before continuing with the project In addition to changing the ISSrsquos orbit Atlantisrsquos astronauts serviced the exterior of the space station and replaced four of its failing

923 Reuters ldquoRussia Russian Cosmonauts Leave Mir and Start Spacewalkrdquo 12 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoMir Cosmonauts Experiment with Space Glue To Seal Cracksrdquo 12 May 2000 924 Tom Breen ldquoNASA Goes for 4th Launch Try in a Monthrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 19 May 2000 Reuters ldquoUSA Update 1⎯Shuttle Atlantis Lifts Off from Floridardquo 19 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoAtlantis Lifts Off on Fourth Tryrdquo 18 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoSix Americans One Russian Bound for Space Stationrdquo 19 May 2000 925 Washington Post ldquoSpacewalkers Begin Repairs on Orbiting Station Wobbly Crane Is Secured Another Awaits Completionrdquo 22 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoOutside Repairs Finished Astronauts Ready To Head Inside Space Stationrdquo 22 May 2000

265


batteries The crew hoped that the latter procedure would stop the gradual drop in elevation that the ISS had been experiencing during the months before Atlantisrsquos visit926

28 May NASA controllers began sending signals to the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory to perform a series of maneuvers that would ultimately end in the satellite crashing into the Pacific Ocean The endgame commands marked the conclusion of a successful nine-year mission which had recorded data on more than 2500 gamma-ray bursts The US$670 million satellite launched on 5 April 1991 aboard Mission STS-37 had provided researchers with never-before-seen images of explosions throughout the universe ldquoIt will be like losing a member of the familyrdquo remarked one NASA scientist who had worked on the program since 1979 NASA officials had decided to end the satellitersquos space tenure because of the possibility that the aging satellite might become unresponsive and plummet out of control to Earth By initiating the satellitersquos demise NASA could control the landing area of the 17-ton (15400-kilogram or 154-tonne) spacecraft Some critics charged NASA with being too conservative because it had based its decision on the 1-inshy1000 odds that an uncontrolled descent of the satellite to Earth would result in injuries927

29 May Atlantis touched down at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida only the 14th time that a NASA Shuttle had landed in darkness NASA controllers used infrared cameras to monitor the Shuttlersquos final descent The return of the Shuttle ended the crucial mission to repair the ISS and reset the space stationrsquos orbit to an optimal altitude NASArsquos Mission Control congratulating the crew on a ldquosuper missionrdquo began almost immediately to anticipate the flurry of missions that would finally complete construction on the ISS Atlantis had sustained minor damage during the trip mainly dents and scratches on its wings caused by ice Three members of the returning crew astronauts Susan J Helms and James S Voss and cosmonaut Yury V Usachev had a special interest in monitoring the ISSrsquos completion because they had been selected for the second research crew to the ISS and would make a long-term stay aboard the research station928

JUNE 2000

2 June NASA announced a partnership with Dreamtime Holdings Inc a start-up company backed by Lockheed Martin to provide the International Space Station (ISS) with high-definition television and to create digital archives for NASA The agreement was NASArsquos first involving a commercial partner that would provide support for the ISS Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced the partnership at NASArsquos Ames Research Center located in the high-technology hub of Californiarsquos Silicon Valley predicting that the partnership would move NASA to the forefront of the information age and terming it ldquoinnovative government at its bestrdquo Dreamtime planned to spend US$100 million on the project which would give civilians access to nevershy

926 Los Angeles Times ldquoShuttle Gives Space Station a Boostrdquo 24 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoAtlantis Lifts Space Station to Right Orbitrdquo 24 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoSpace Station Gets Fresh Batteriesrdquo 24 May 2000927 James Orberg ldquoPlan To Scrap Satellite Sacrifices Sciencerdquo USA Today 24 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoNASA To Destroy Compton Satellite After Nine Yearsrdquo 28 May 2000 928 William Harwood ldquoShuttle Ends Repair Trip to Stationrdquo Washington Post 30 May 2000 USA Today ldquoShuttle Crew Returns from Space Station Repair Missionrdquo 30 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoNighttime Landing Ends Shuttle Repair Missionrdquo 30 May 2000

266


before-seen images of the Space Shuttles and of NASA missions The pact resulted from the Commercial Space Act of 1998 enacted to increase commercial involvement in and funding for the ISS929

4 June NASA de-orbited the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory after nine years in orbit in a controlled reentry into Earthrsquos atmosphere Director of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center Alphonse V Diaz called the event ldquoa bittersweet day for NASArdquo The spacecraft NASArsquos ldquogamma-ray equivalentrdquo of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) launched in 1991 with four instruments designed to observe gamma rays During the course of its impressive tenure the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory had yielded valuable data regarding the previously little-known gamma-ray sky The 17-ton (15400-kilogram or 154-tonne) US$670 million research craft had orbited Earth for long after its predicted lifespan Some critics had opposed bringing the craft crashing to Earth while it was still providing useful data In 1999 however NASA engineers had detected problems with one of the satellitersquos control gyroscopes After considering sending maintenance missions to repair the craft or training the Shuttle crew to capture the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and bring it back to Earth for service NASA officials had determined that the prudent response was controlled de-orbit and preemptive destruction of the satellite NASA engineers used a series of engine burns to guide the satellite in its reentry into Earthrsquos atmosphere and to direct the pieces of debris from the craft to crash into the Pacific Ocean Like NASArsquos efforts to control the reentry of Skylab in 1979 this maneuver was one of the first times that NASA had intentionally destroyed one of its own craft by guiding its reentry into Earthrsquos atmosphere930

5 June At the American Astronomical Society convention scientists Karl Gebhardt and Douglas O Richstone announced that an extensive survey of more than 30 galaxies had revealed that black holes reach their large size through gradual growth Previously some research had suggested the opposite⎯that black holes were simply ldquobornrdquo big Using the HST Gebhardt and Richstone had led a team of astronomers in determining the size of black holes in different galaxies They found that although small galaxies tend to have smaller black holes the largest known galaxies have mammoth black holes The astronomers suspected that the black holes had ldquogrown uprdquo along with the galaxies where they resided feeding on gas and stars to acquire increasing mass Although further research must determine the precise correlation between black hole and galaxy size the scientific community greeted news of the discovery with great interest The HST had not only made the discovery possible but had provided the opportunity for scientists to continue ldquoblack hole huntingrdquo to tabulate more exact answers931

929 NASA ldquoNASA Dreamtime Partnership Propels Space Information Age to New Heightsrdquo news release 00-87 2 June 2000 Frank Morring Jr ldquoStartup To Spend $100 Million Digitizing Station NASA Archivesrdquo Aerospace Daily 2 June 2000 930 NASA ldquoStatus Report 2 Second Deorbit Burn for Observatory Successful Time Change for Last Two Burnsrdquo news release 1 July 2000 NASA ldquoFinal Status Report Compton Gamma Ray Observatory Safely Returns to Earthrdquo news release 4 June 2000 Michael E Ruane ldquoA Satellitersquos Bittersweet Splashdown Scientists Nostalgic Angry About Demise of Md-Based Projectrdquo Washington Post 2 June 2000 931 NASA ldquoBlack Holes Shed Light on Galaxy Formationrdquo news release 00-88 5 June 2000

267


Scientists at the American Astronomical Society convention also unveiled the first detailed map of the region of the universe inhabited by Earth Using an Australian robotic telescope which measured distances between more than 100000 galaxies researchers had charted the locations of galaxies dark regions and cosmic clusters Perhaps most significantly the new map supported a long-standing theory regarding the size limits of cosmic structures Because of the relatively small scope of previous mapping surveys scientists had questioned whether the known standards of cosmic size were representative The newest map however did not reveal any cosmic structure outside of previous standards Therefore scientists could support with greater conviction the idea that size limits existed as the universe evolved The researchers termed the limits the ldquoend of greatnessrdquo932

6 June After two earlier unsuccessful trials Russia launched without incident a modified Proton rocket carrying a large Gorizont communications satellite Propulsion-system flaws had triggered explosions of the Proton rocket in previous trials The United States viewed the successful test launch as a positive sign of Russiarsquos commitment to the ISS project a boost for the strained relationship between the two countries After the failed tests a joint NASA-Russian Space Agency research crew had determined that production flaws in the turbomachinery of the rocketrsquos second and third stages including the presence of contaminants such as asbestos cloth and metal fragments had caused the problems Russia planned to test the Proton rocket again before scheduling the much-delayed delivery of its crew module to the ISS933

NASA announced that its Chandra X-ray Observatory had revealed a ldquoluminous spike of x-raysrdquo known as a hot spot located approximately 800000 light-years away from its black-hole source Scientists commented that the images captured x-ray behavior that astronomers had not predicted Andrew S Wilson of the University of Maryland explained ldquothe brightness and the spectrum of the x-rays are very different from what theory projectsrdquo A possible explanation offered for the brilliant hot spot of x-rays was that a series of shock waves had catapulted across the galaxy electrons with energies as high as 50 thousand billion times the energy of light934

13 June Having restored Liberty Bell 7 which had spent 38 years at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean NASA placed the space capsule on display at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Liberty Bell 7 had carried astronaut Virgil I ldquoGusrdquo Grissom into space on 21 July 1961 in NASArsquos second piloted spaceflight After its pathbreaking 15-minute suborbital flight the capsule had descended to the ocean The hatch of Liberty Bell 7 had blown off just after landing causing the capsule to fill with water and almost drowning Grissom A helicopter present at the landing had tried to pull the Liberty Bell 7 out of the water but the waterlogged capsule had become too heavy and the crew had to cut it loose leaving it to sink Regarding the hatchrsquos failure astronaut Grissom had maintained until his death in the 1967 Apollo launchpad fire that he had followed proper protocol Nearly 40 years after the ocean landing the Discovery Channel had funded a recovery mission that had brought the historic spacecraft out of the ocean Although divers had not found the hatch previous NASA investigations had supported Grissomrsquos claim that human error had

932 James Glanz ldquoRobotic Telescope Affirms Assumption on Universersquos Birthrdquo New York Times 7 June 2000 933 Mark Carreau ldquoRocket Gives Space Station a Liferdquo Houston Chronicle 7 June 2000 934 NASA ldquoSpectacular X-ray Jet Points Toward Cosmic Energy Boosterrdquo news release 00-89 6 June 2000

268


not caused the hatch failure NASA had restored the capsule placing it in a clear plastic display case so that visitors to KSC could peer inside the spacecraft935

16 June After spending more than two months aboard the Mir space station Russian cosmonauts returned to Earth According to MirCorp the mission had been the first privately funded crewed mission to Mir Sergei V Zalyotin and Alexander Y Kaleri landed safely in Kazakhstan having spent most of their time aboard the Russian spacecraft conducting crucial repairs To keep the station running MirCorp had signed a lease agreement for Mir and paid for the mission However with the return of Zalyotin and Kaleri Russia placed on hold the prospect of continuing Mir even if supported with private funds ldquoIf there is no money Mir will not flyrdquo Russian Space Agency Director General Yuri N Koptev stated at the end of the mission Russian officials indicated that the Russian Space Agency would leave the space station unpiloted once again until private investors could fund another mission The continuing focus on Mir while the building of Russiarsquos ISS module ran far behind schedule agitated some NASA officials and international space leaders936

NASA and the Boeing Company announced an agreement to use Boeingrsquos Delta Launch Services Inc for a variety of NASA missions The contract estimated to be worth at least US$168 million included options to extend the agreement NASA also awarded both Boeing and Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services Inc indefinite deliveryndashindefinite quantity contracts for 10 years The agreements solidified NASArsquos partnerships with the two major aerospace companies A NASA spokesperson clarified the reasons for the extension of the relationships saying that Boeing and Lockheed ldquowere selected based on their ability to meet NASArsquos highly critical future mission requirements and their proven track records for providing a quality productrdquo At the time of the agreement with Boeing the company had flown 82 missions for NASA with a success rate of 98 percent937

19 June NASA celebrated the 20th anniversary of its Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP) created to encourage promising high school students especially minorities to pursue careers in math science and engineering During the first 20 years of the program nearly 3000 students participated and 3300 NASA employees served as SHARP mentors Most SHARP student participants had served as interns at one of NASArsquos research centers during the summer months NASA had begun the program and had continued to fund it as part of its educational mission938

21 June

935 Associated Press ldquoGrissomrsquos Capsule Back at Space Centerrdquo 14 June 2000 936 Associated Press ldquoMir Cosmonauts Return to Earthrdquo 15 June 2000 Associated Press ldquoMir Cosmonauts Prepare To Return to Earthrdquo 15 June 2000 CNNcom ldquoFirst Privately Funded Manned Space Mission Blasts Off for Mir 4 April 2000 httparchivescnncom2000TECHspace0404russiamir01 (accessed 15 July 2008) 937 The Boeing Company ldquoBoeing Delta Rockets To Launch Next-Generation NASA Space Craftrdquo news release 16 June 2000 NASA ldquoNASA Awards Launch Services Contractsrdquo news release c00-e 16 June 2000 Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) ldquoBoeing Wins $168 Million NASA Order for 3 More Delta II Launches Optionsrdquo 19 June 2000 938 NASA ldquoNASArsquos SHARP Program Celebrates 20 Years of Excellencerdquo news release 00-96 19 June 2000

269


NASA reported to the public that Mars Global Surveyor had captured images depicting erosion and soil deposits consistent with the presence of flowing water on the planet in the past Researchers had long postulated that billions of years ago Marsrsquos surface held abundant water which had dried up as the planetrsquos atmosphere thinned Because scientists had suggested that the one-time presence of water on Mars might indicate the one-time presence of life on the planet the new evidence created significant excitement in the scientific community In announcing the find NASA reported that it ldquocould turn out to be a landmark discoveryrdquo but cautioned against drawing conclusions from the images without further analysis Furthermore the images suggested that water might have been present on the planet more recently than previously thought Associate Administrator for Space Science Edward J Weiler explained ldquoFor two decades scientists have debated whether liquid water might have existed on the surface of Mars just a few billion years ago With todayrsquos discovery wersquore no longer talking about a distant time The debate has moved to present-day Marsrdquo939

22 June After a lengthy legislative battle the US House of Representatives approved a US$60 million increase for NASA in its FY 2001 budget Although the amount was less than the Clinton administration had requested for NASA the spending proposal marked the end of several years of cost cutting for NASA Even during a period of budget surpluses NASA had not achieved the victory without a fight Some members of Congress concerned over the delay in the completion of the ISS had introduced a floor amendment to delete all funding for the ISS However the House had roundly defeated the budget-slashing amendment as it had in previous years with a vote of 325 to 98 Noting that the ISS was nearly complete Representative Robert E Cramer (DshyAL) spoke for NASA proponents when he said ldquoThis is not the time to pull the rug out from under this programrdquo940

30 June NASA launched the most advanced communications satellite it had ever developed the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-H (TDRS-H) created to provide communication between the Space Shuttles ISS HST and NASA control centers Intended to replace a communications satellite that had been in place since 1983 and had surpassed its mission-designed lifetime the new TDRS-H was the first of three communications satellites planned to link NASArsquos space-bound vehicles NASA had designated nearly US$500 million for the design building and launch of the three new satellites The TDRS-H launched aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIA rocket separating from it after about 30 minutes of flight Once the satellite reached 171deg longitude it became operational941

939 Kathy Sawyer ldquoMars Craft Finds Evidence of Waterrdquo Washington Post 22 June 2000 William F Nicholson ldquoReports NASA Finds Evidence of Water on Marsrdquo USA Today 21 June 2000 NASA ldquoNew Images Suggest Present-Day Sources of Liquid Water on Marsrdquo news release 00-99 22 June 2000 940 Tamara Lytle ldquoHouse OKs Giving NASA $137 Billion in 2001 Fiscal Yearrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 22 June 2000 Gannett News Service ldquoHouse Votes Down Measure To Cut Space Stationrdquo 22 June 2000 941 Lockheed Martin Inc ldquoInternational Launch Services and Lockheed Martin Provide Mission Success for NASA Satellite Launchrdquo news release 30 June 2000 NASA ldquoAdvanced Communications Satellite Ready To Serve New Millennium Space Projectsrdquo news release 00-98 21 June 2000

270


JULY 2000

4 July Russia launched a new defense and spy satellite aboard a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome More concerned with the launch vehicle than with the military satellite US space officials praised the successful operation of the Proton-K rocket a rocket similar in type to those that had been involved in several launch accidents during 1999 The United States had a particular interest in the launch because Russia planned to carry a module built for the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Proton rocket Russia had built the Zvezda module to provide living space for the ISS crew A spokesperson for the Russian Space Agency stated that the rocketrsquos successful launch confirmed Russiarsquos ability to transport its Zvezda module ldquoThis launch is important in estimating the readiness of the Proton-K booster rocket for a more important mission July 12 when the same kind of booster will carry the Russian-built Zvezda service module to the ISSrdquo The Russian Space Agency had overcome significant financial shortfalls to complete production on both the Proton-K rocket and the Zvezda module942

7 July Engineers completed a weeklong series of tests on the US-built Destiny laboratory planned to launch to the ISS in 2001 ensuring that the module had no leaks and would provide a safe vacuum-sealed environment in which the ISS astronauts could conduct research NASA and the Boeing Company had worked together to test the 32000-pound (14500-kilogram) research laboratory Placing Destiny in a pressurized chamber engineers had monitored gas levels inside the module over the course of the week Tip Talone Director of the ISS Payload Process at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) characterized the results as ldquoa large step in meeting the labrsquos lsquoDestinyrsquordquo stating that the laboratory had ldquoexceeded expectationsrdquo943

12 July After nearly two years of delays and many questions regarding the Russian Space Agencyrsquos commitment to the ISS Russia successfully launched the Zvezda module aboard a Proton rocket Building the 22-ton (20000-kilogram or 20-tonne) US$320 million module to provide living quarters for researchers aboard the ISS had severely taxed the Russian space program To bring the project to fruition Russia had relied on the resourcefulness of its scientists and engineers as well as resorting to creative financing arrangements such as selling the US-based Pizza Hut Company an advertisement for display on the side of the Proton launch rocket Russia had insured Zvezdarsquos launch for more than US$1 billion Hundreds of spectators representing aerospace companies from Russia and Western countries witnessed the launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Watching the launch with Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin praised the successful completion of the long-awaited module ldquoThe Russians have gone through all sorts of difficulty with their economy the political changes and a whole variety of other problems and they came through and did what they said they were going to dordquo Koptev made clear the high stakes for future Russian space projects based on the successful launch and linkup of Zvezda ldquoThis is 10 years of work and the success of this launch will determine to a large extent whether the Russian space programme continues or notrdquo The international space community greeted news of the

942 Reuters ldquoRussia Russia Launches Proton Rocket Ahead of Space Labrdquo 5 July 2000 943 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoSpace State Laboratory Exceeds Expectations in Vacuum Chamber Testrdquo 7 July 2000

271


launch as a sign that the much-postponed ISS was nearing completion Although Russia had plans to contribute further portals to the ISS none of its subsequent contributions had as much potential to delay the international effort944

13 July Astronaut Eileen M Collins speaking for NASA publicly responded to the report of the Commission for the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science Engineering and Technology Development The Commission had reported that a severe shortage of high-tech workers threatened economic growth in the United States highlighting the need to increase funding from both private and governmental sources to improve education in science and engineering The report had emphasized that improved education in these fields was necessary if the United States hoped to continue training engineers and researchers qualified to bring NASArsquos exploratory mission to fruition Citing the example of her own educational and career path Collins called for further support for research and education in mathematics science engineering and technology Both the Commissionrsquos report and Collinsrsquos response continued an ongoing debate over how to change the trend among students to choose paths of study outside of the fields of science and technology In 1999 NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin had also testified before the US House Committee on Science and Technology regarding the challenge of drawing young people to careers as scientists and engineers945

14 July NASA released to the Internet a database of 19 million celestial images the largest collection of images of stars and other celestial bodies ever made freely available for public use The rapid improvement of technology had made possible the release which brought to home computers information that could have filled 6000 CD-ROMs The Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) which used two 51-inch (130-centimeter) telescopes to survey the sky had collected the images The University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory had collaborated on 2MASS creating a database of great value to scholars and the public alike946

William G Fastie known for helping establish the prestigious Johns Hopkins University space program and for inventing the spectrometer died in Baltimore at the age of 83 Fastie often called the father of the Hopkins space program was one of the United Statesrsquo preeminent astrophysicists His spectrometer which measured the spectrum of light helping scientists gather data about other planets was not only innovative but also rugged enough to travel into space947

15 July

944 Associated Press ldquoRussian Launching Clears Way for Space Stationrdquo 13 July 2000 USA Today ldquoRussia Sends Module of Space Station into Orbitrdquo 12 July 2000 Newsday (Long Island NY) ldquoLaunch of Key Module for Space Station Is Setrdquo 11 July 2000 Reuters ldquoRussia Space Station Launch Insured for over $1 Blnrdquo 12 July 2000 Reuters ldquoKazakhstan Update 2-Russia Launches Key Module for ISSrdquo 12 July 2000 945 NASA ldquoNASA Supports High-Tech Workforce Reflecting Diversity of Americardquo news release 00-106 13 July 2000 946 NASA ldquoTwin-Telescope Sky Survey lsquoGives You the Starsrsquordquo news release 00-108 14 July 2000 947 Alice Lukens ldquoWilliam G Fastie 83 Hopkins Astrophysicist Designed Spectrometerrdquo Baltimore Sun (MD) 17 July 2000

272


As Russiarsquos Zvezda module its major contribution to the ISS continued its journey toward the ISS NASA celebrated the 25th anniversary of one of the first international collaborative missions The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project had launched on 15 July 1975 when American astronauts Thomas P Stafford Vance D Brand and Donald K Slayton lifted off aboard an Apollo spacecraft atop a Saturn 1B rocket During the course of their nine-day mission the NASA crew had docked the United Statesrsquo Apollo with Russiarsquos Soyuz 19 spacecraft successfully and without incident The Cold Warndashera mission testing the ability of NASA spacecraft to link with Russian ones had represented a significant step toward the development of international collaboration in future space exploration948

The National Aviation Hall of Fame inducted four new members at a black-tie dinner and formal enshrinement ceremony at the Dayton Convention Center in Dayton Ohio Apollo astronaut Edwin E ldquoBuzzrdquo Aldrin Jr joined fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Neil A Armstrong in the Hall of Fame Aviators previously inducted to the Hall of Fame included Eugene A Cernan the last Apollo astronaut to walk on the Moon Laurence C ldquoBillrdquo Craigie the first US military aviator to fly a jet aircraft and Thomas B McGuire Jr the second-leading fighter ace in US Air Force history The National Aviation Hall of Famersquos Class of 2000 joined 166 award-winning aviators already chosen for the honor949

16 July The first of two Cluster spacecraft launches took place from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan NASA and the European Space Agency had formed a partnership to develop and build the exploration craft designed to travel around the Earth in a tetrahedral formation collecting data on solar wind Space officials planned to launch two additional Cluster craft one month after the first two had entered their orbiting pattern With four satellites launched and flying in formation scientists expected to harvest data about the ldquoturbulent battlerdquo raging between Earthrsquos magnetic field and the solar winds blowing at an estimated rate of 1ndash2 million miles (16ndash32 million kilometers) per hour Researchers also hoped the new information would help scientists understand other interactions between the Earth and the Sun Each of the four Cluster spacecraft carried instruments to measure the patterns of electrons and the presence of protons and helium as well as instruments to monitor the characteristics of electronic fields solar wind and plasma waves950

18 July NASA announced that SPX Services Solutions had obtained a license to use NASA-patented technology to monitor more carefully levels of exhaust produced by the United Statesrsquo millions of motor vehicles NASA had developed its atmospheric remote-sensing technology to track greenhouse gases and to monitor Earthrsquos ozone layer Combining government and private forces researchers intended to focus on the pollution output of motor vehicles particularly that of individual automobiles SPX Services planned to design a device that would enable a driver to test his or her own vehicle to determine its compliance with US Clean Air Act standards rather

948 NASA ldquoAnniversary of Apollo Soyuz Test Project Observedrdquo news release N00-30 11 July 2000 Reuters ldquoUS Russia Mark Space Jubilee as New Era Beckonsrdquo 11 July 2000 949 Dayton Daily News (OH) ldquoAstronaut Meets a Fan Aviation Hall of Fame Enshrines 4 Morerdquo 16 July 2000 950 NASA ldquoNew Cluster Mission To Provide Unprecedented Detail about Space Weatherrdquo news release 00-105 13 July 2000

273


than requiring the driver to take it to an auto mechanic for an emissions test The goal of self-monitoring suited the increasingly popular idea of encouraging individuals to accept personal responsibility for protecting Earth from noxious pollutants951

20 July The 20 July 2000 edition of Astrophysical Journal Letters published research of Gibor Basri chronicling the first sighting of a flare from a failed star or brown dwarf Using the Chandra X-ray Observatory a team of scientists from the University of California at Berkeley had spotted the brown dwarf and its bright x-ray flare Scientists believed that examining the x-ray flare would help them better understand dying stars and the explosive activity and magnetic fields of low-mass stars Early analyses indicated that the brown dwarfrsquos x-ray flare was approximately 1 billion times more powerful than the x-ray flares emitted from the planet Jupiter Scientists reacted to news of the discovery with excitement and surprise Robert E Rutledge of California Institute of Technology stated that he and his colleagues were ldquoshockedrdquo clarifying ldquowe did not expect to see flaring from such a lightweight object This is really the mouse that roaredrdquo The task of spotting an x-ray flare had been difficult because the brown dwarf emitted the flares only periodically However the intermittent flares made the successful capture of an image all the more significant The observation of the brown dwarfrsquos occasional release of x-ray flares confirmed the theory that brown dwarfs only release energy when they heat to temperatures above 4500degF (2500degC)952

24 July Cape Canaveral Florida celebrated 50 years as a launch site Long before NASA had begun to use the site the U S Army had launched test rockets from the swampy land The ldquolirsquol Bumperrdquo was among the first according to Dick Jones a retired US Army master sergeant who had helped with the 1950 launches During its first 50 years the Army had launched about 3200 rockets and missiles from the site which would eventually become KSC953

26 July The Zvezda service module successfully docked at the ISS immediately increasing the size of the space station by 50 percent Through a series of rocket firings Zvezda had drawn steadily closer to the ISS during its two-week journey to its new home 220 miles (354 kilometers) from Earth Experts had deemed the successful launch and docking of the Russian component of the ISS vital to the long-term success of the collaborative venture The Russian-built Zvezda nearly identical to a core section of the Russian Mir space station was to provide living quarters for researchers on the station as well as vital electronic computer and communications systems Anticipating significant interest in the historic linkup NASA provided information on its Web site explaining how to view the space station as it traveled over Earth954

951 NASA ldquoNASA Satellite Technology To Monitor Motor Vehicle Pollutionrdquo news release 18 July 2000 952 Gibor Basri et al ldquoAn Effective Temperature Scale for Late M and L Dwarfs from Resonance Absorption Lines of Cs I and Rb Irdquo Astrophysical Journal Letters 538 no 1 (20 July 2000) 363minus385 NASA ldquoChandra Captures Flare from Brown Dwarfrdquo news release 00-103 11 July 2000 953 Eliot Kleinberg ldquo50 Years at the Cape Opening the Door to Spacerdquo Palm Beach Post (FL) 24 July 2000 Associated Press ldquoCape Canaveral A Half-Century of Launches Begin with Bumperrdquo 19 July 2000 954 Warren E Leary ldquoSpace Station Is Connected to Module from Russiardquo New York Times 26 July 2000 NASA ldquoNo Telescopes Needed NASA Web Sites Let Stargazers Track Impending Space Station lsquoNuptualsrsquordquo news release

274


28 July Nearly one year after the highly publicized failure of a probe to reach the surface of Mars NASA announced plans for at least one possibly two robotic rovers to explore Mars by 2003 The new design plan the outcome of an overhaul of NASArsquos Mars Program in the aftermath of the unsuccessful mission called for a rover larger than Mars Sojourner which had successfully navigated the Martian surface in 1997 NASA planned for the new probe to continue the search for water on the surface of the Red Planet955

AUGUST 2000

2 August Mitsuyuki Ueda of the Aeronautics and Space Development Division of Japanrsquos Science and Technology Agency announced that Japan had decided to freeze the development of an unpiloted space shuttle which was four years behind schedule because of problems in Japanrsquos shuttle program as well as in its H-2 rocket program Japan had originally conceived its planned 20-ton (18000-kilogram or 181-tonne) shuttle in the 1980s modeling it after the US Space Shuttle and designing it to conduct scientific experiments and to carry into space payloads of up to 3 tons (2700 kilograms or 27 tonnes) Technical and financial setbacks within Japanrsquos shuttle program contributed to the freeze In addition because the original plan had called for Japan to launch the space shuttle aboard a Japanese-designed H-2 rocket a launch failure of an H-2 rocket had influenced the decision to halt Japanrsquos shuttle program In the failed launch of November 1999 officials had to destroy the rocket in midair leading an advisory panel to suggest that Japanrsquos planned shuttle should launch from a reusable high-speed jet plane rather than atop a rocket956

Space Media Inc and S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia) prime contractor of the Russian service module of the International Space Station (ISS) announced a new multimedia partnership called Enermedia LLC Under the new partnership Space Media Inc would use the Russian Space Program archives to develop and provide multimedia which the Russian service module would broadcast on television and the Internet957

4 August New Skies Satellites NV selected Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems (LMCSS) to build a second geosynchronous satellite to provide high-speed Internet access and other multimedia communications to a large coverage area extending from the eastern Mediterranean and southern Africa to Australia Japan and Korea New Skies selected the LMCSS A2100

00-114 20 July 2000 NASA ldquoFirst Opportunity Tonight for Zvezda To Dock with International Space Stationrdquo news release N00-36 25 July 2000 955 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNASA Moves To Send Robot Rovers To Explore Mars Surfacerdquo Washington Post 28 July 2000 Peter N Spotts ldquoNew Rover To Look for Signs of Water on Marsrdquo Christian Science Monitor 31 July 2000 Tribune News Services ldquoNASA Unveils Plans for 2003 Mission to Marsrdquo 28 July 2000 956 Associated Press ldquoJapan Freezes Plans To Make Unmanned Space Shuttlerdquo 2 August 2000 957 SPACEHAB ldquoSpace Media Inc and RSC Energia Join Forces Forming New Multimedia Partnershiprdquo news release 2 August 2000 httpwwwspacehabcomnews200000_08_02htm (accessed 8 May 2008)

275


satellite because it was able to meet challenging demands for bandwidth power and in-orbit flexibility958

6 August A Russian Progress cargo spacecraft launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying fuel to the uninhabited ISS for use in adjusting the stationrsquos orbit The craft also carried scientific instruments linens and personal-hygiene supplies in preparation for the October arrival of the stationrsquos first permanent crew959

7 August NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had located a ldquosmall armada of lsquominishycometsrsquordquo the fragmented remains of the nucleus of the comet LINEAR When it had disappeared behind the Sun on 27 July 2000 astronomers initially thought that LINEAR had disintegrated entirely Upon losing sight of the cometrsquos core ground-based observers had suggested that the nucleus had disintegrated into a ldquopile of dustrdquo and consequently astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute had reprogrammed the HST to search for the nucleus The exceptional resolution and sensitivity of the HST had revealed the nuclei of a half-dozen mini-comets at a level of detail never before observed in a disintegrating comet Some astronomers had suggested that the fragments the HST revealed were the ldquoprimordial building blocks of the original nucleusrdquo If so studying them could help scientists understand how the comet had originally formed960

8 August NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin began an official visit to Morocco to discuss space cooperation He planned to meet with several Moroccan officials particularly in the fields of scientific research and advanced technology and to visit facilities in Morocco capable of launching Space Shuttles961

9 August A Starsem Soyuz-Fregat rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying into orbit for the European Space Agency (ESA) the final pair of Cluster II scientific satellites Rumba and Tango The launch was the 10th consecutive success for the French-Russian Starsem consortium The first pair of Cluster II satellites named Salsa and Samba had launched on 16 July 2000 Designed to determine the physical process of the interaction between the solar wind and Earthrsquos magnetosphere the missionrsquos main objective was to increase understanding of space weather viewed as ldquoan increasingly significant obstacle to satellite activityrdquo thereby improving scientistsrsquo forecasting abilities Each of the four spacecraft contained a collection of instruments for detecting plasma fields waves and particles The Cluster II mission designed to last for two years following an initial three-month period of instrument and system commissioning was an

958 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Awarded Contract To Build First Interactive Broadband Multimedia Spacecraft for New Skies Satellitesrdquo news release 4 August 2000 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_ releases2000LockheedMartinAwardedContractBuildFhtml (accessed 6 May 2008) 959 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoShip with Supplies for Space Station Launchesrdquo 7 August 2000 960 NASA ldquoHubble Discovers Missing Pieces of Comet Linearrdquo news release 00-122 7 August 2000 httpwww nasagovhomehqnews200000-122txt (accessed 6 May 2008) 961 BBC ldquoMorocco NASA Official Visits for Talks on Space Cooperationrdquo RTM TV (Rabat Morocco) 9 August 2000

276


international effort of more than 200 scientists from Canada China the Czech Republic ESA member states Hungary India Israel Japan Russia and the United States The original Cluster mission had ended during its inaugural launch in 1996 when a malfunction had caused the explosion of Arianespace Incrsquos Ariane 5 rocket962

10 August NASArsquos Associate Administrator for Space Science Edward J Weiler announced that NASA had decided to send two large scientific rovers to Mars in 2003 rather than a single craft The new plan called for the two craft to launch within weeks of each other reaching Mars in January 2004 after their respective seven and one-half-month-long journeys The two 300-pound (136shykilogram) rovers exact duplicates of each other and similar to the highly successful Sojourner rover of 1997 would head to different locations on Mars Mars Program Director G Scott Hubbard explained that NASA had undertaken an extensive study of the two-rover option weighing the excellent launch opportunity in 2003 against resource requirements and schedule constraints The study teams concluded that it would be possible to successfully develop and launch identical packages and that the new plan would not only double NASArsquos scientific return but also add resiliency and robustness to the Mars exploration program Although NASA had yet to select the two landing sites Mars Program Scientist James B Garvin suggested that possible locations included those with evidence of the existence of water in the past Steven W Squyres of Cornell University Principal Investigator for the roversrsquo Athena science package explained that the goal of each rover would be to learn about ancient water and climate conditions on Mars Each craft would operate as a robotic field geologist reading the geological record at its landing site to discover what conditions had formed the local rocks and soils963

14 August The Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000) officially commenced in South Africarsquos Northern Province with the gathering of scientists from 14 nations and six South African universities NASA alongside the University of Witwatersrand led SAFARI 2000 their goal to ldquodetermine how the regionrsquos natural ecosystems and human land use affect air quality and atmospheric conditionsrdquo The initiative would use specially equipped planes to make four scientific flights each week over a six-week period through September 2000 A modern ER-2 version of the U-2 spy plane would fly directly under the Terra satellite as it passed over various regions of southern Africa to verify the satellitersquos data Three other aircraft would also fly with the ER-2 ldquolike a stack of pancakesrdquo with the ER-2 flying at about 65000 feet (19800 meters) to conduct remote sensing a Convair 580 aircraft collecting air and gas samples just below the ERshy2 and two Aerocommander 690A aircraft conducting similar tests at between 5000 and 12000 feet (1500 and 3700 meters)964

16 August

962 European Space Agency ldquoLift Off for Second Pair of Cluster II Spacecraftrdquo news release 52-2000 httpwww esaintesaCPPr_52_2000_p_ENhtml (accessed 8 May 2008) Space Business News ldquoSoyuz Launches Second Pair of Cluster Probes Igniting Science Mission Tenth Successful Launch in 18 Monthsrdquo 16 August 2000 963 NASA ldquoNASA Plans To Send Rover Twins to Mars in 2003rdquo news release 00-124 10 August 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-124txt (accessed 7 May 2008) 964 Justin Arenstein for Africa News Service ldquoAfricarsquos Biggest Science Experiment Kicks Offrdquo 14 August 2000 Africa News Service ldquoNASA Project Off to a Flying Startrdquo 14 August 2000

277


Emergency rescue personnel from Canada Russia and the United States participated in training exercises near St Petersburg in Russia where they practiced maneuvers for rescuing astronauts returning to Earth from the ISS The rescuers practiced searching in water and on land for a module carrying three astronauts as well as practicing first-aid techniques965

NASA announced that its Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) had detected water vapor throughout interstellar space However in the very coldest areas where temperatures are only 30deg above absolute zero the satellite had detected far less water vapor than most theories had predicted In those areas SWAS measurements had indicated water vapor concentrations of only a few parts per billion Ronald L Snell of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst remarked that the finding presented a ldquoreal puzzle to our understanding of the chemistry of interstellar cloudsrdquo In warmer regions such as those within star-producing gas clouds SWAS had measured water concentrations as much as 10000 times greater than in the coldest regions The new results were the product of 18 months of observations using the compact radio observatory launched in 1998 on a mission to ldquostudy the composition of interstellar gas clouds and their collapse to form new starsrdquo966

17 August Robert R Gilruth ldquoan aerospace scientist engineer and a pioneer of the American space program during the glory days of Mercury Gemini and Apollordquo died at the age of 86 Gilruth had specialized in flight research and in 1945 he had organized an engineering team to study experimental rocket-powered aircraft leading to the establishment of the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division and the creation of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronauticsrsquos Wallops Island launching range In 1952 Gilruth had become Assistant Director of the Langley Laboratory investigating high-temperature structures and dynamics loads and conducting hypersonic aerodynamics research at Wallops Island His focus shifted to spacecraft in 1957 after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik When NASA began in 1958 Gilruth had become Director of the Space Task Group at Langley ultimately devising all the basic principles of Project Mercury In 1961 Gilruth had become Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center later Johnson Space Center (JSC) where he directed 25 human spaceflights over the course of 10 years George M Low Director of the Apollo Lunar Landing Program once remarked in an interview that the Mercury Gemini and Apollo programs would never have existed without Robert Gilruth NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin commented ldquohis courage to explore the unknown his insistence on following strict scientific procedures and his technical expertise directly contributed to the ultimate success of the American manned space program and the landing of a man on the moonrdquo967

23 August Russian space officials announced a decision to alter plans for the Enterprise module of the ISS which the company RSC Energia was building in conjunction with the US company SPACEHAB In the original plans the module had been noncommercial providing docking and

965 Associated Press ldquoRussian US Rescuers Practice Space Rescuerdquo 16 August 2000 966 NASA ldquoCosmic Gas Clouds Yield Puzzling Concentrations of Waterrdquo news release 00-126 16 August 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-126txt (accessed 6 May 2008) 967 NASA ldquoDr Robert Gilruth an Architect of Manned Space Flight Diesrdquo news release 00-127 17 August 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-127txt (accessed 6 May 2008)

278


cargo space but in an effort to increase revenue RSC Energia had revised the plans to allow the module to hold multimedia equipment for various business projects968

Lockheed Martin Systems Integration announced that the US Navy had selected the company to build seven SH-60R Multi-Mission Helicopters under the first SH-60R low-rate initial production (LRIP) contract moving Lockheed Martin from development and testing to the production phase of the SH-60R program The contract required Lockheed Martin to integrate the flight avionics systems mission avionics systems and stores and defense systems969

NASA announced the results of the most complete HST census of brown dwarfs finding that the ldquoodd and elusive objects also tend to be lonersrdquo Joan Najita of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Arizona explained that the properties of brown dwarfs ldquoreveal new and unique insights into how stars and planets formrdquo because they ldquobridge the gap between stars and planetsrdquo The stellar objects are too low in mass to burn hydrogen yet are more massive than planets despite being 15 to 80 times more massive than Jupiter brown dwarfs are difficult to detect because the light they emit is very faint The HST census had found more low-mass than high-mass brown dwarfs as is the case with stars and the isolated brown dwarfs appeared to represent the low-mass counterparts of the more massive classes of stars In carrying out the census scientists had used the HSTrsquos infrared vision to measure the brightness and temperature of stars in the cluster IC 348 in the constellation Perseus Najita and colleagues had used the telescopersquos NICMOS camera developing a new technique to distinguish brown dwarfs from ldquothe clutter of background starsrdquo The new procedure had measured the ldquostrength of an infrared water-absorption band in the atmospheres of the starsrdquo a sensitive measure of each starrsquos temperature solving several problems simultaneously The procedure had enabled the scientists to distinguish the brown dwarfs from background stars and to measure the masses of the brown dwarfs without needing to assume their ages thereby greatly improving estimates of mass970

24 August NASA awarded four small businesses 90-day contracts to develop concepts and requirements for providing access to the ISS on emerging launch systems The contractsrsquo purpose was to identify potential backup capability and to augment the stationrsquos primary resupply vehicles the US Space Shuttle the Russian Progress the ESArsquos Automated Transfer Vehicle and the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle NASA awarded Andrews Space and Technology US$195000 Microcosm US$198000 HMX Ltd US$245000 and Kistler Aerospace Corporation US$264000 to develop concepts determine requirements of launch services and provide suggestions on specific development risk-reduction activities which NASA would need to perform NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center would manage the study contracts under the Alternate Access Project of the Space Launch Initiative971

968 Associated Press ldquoRussia Seeks Space Station Revenuerdquo 23 August 2000 969 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Awarded First SH-60R Avionics Production Contractrdquo news release 23 August 2000 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases2000LockheedMartinAwardedFirstSH60R Aviohtml (accessed 6 May 2008) 970 NASA ldquoHubble Gets Head Count of Elusive Brown Dwarf Starsrdquo news release 00-130 23 August 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-130txt (accessed 6 May 2008) 971 NASA ldquoSmall Companies To Study Potential Use of Emerging Launch Services for Alternative Access to Space Stationrdquo news release C00-g 24 August 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-gtxt (accessed 6 May 2008)

279


25 August Margaret G Kivelson and four coauthors from the University of California at Los Angeles published in the journal Science the strongest evidence to date that Jupiterrsquos moon Europa contains a salty liquid ocean beneath its surface The team had used data from the Galileo probersquos magnetometer to study Europarsquos magnetic compass finding that ldquothe presence of a layer of electrically conducting liquid such as saltwaterrdquo best explained the behavior of the moonrsquos magnetic compass Kivelson explained that the team had inferred that the conductor must be a liquid ocean since ice is not a good conductor of electricity However Torrence V Johnson of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) remarked that the magnetometer data by itself was insufficient to conclude the presence of a liquid ocean Johnson explained that scientists needed several further steps of inference such as precise measurements of gravity and altitude indicating the effects of tides972

27 August In the second on-orbit failure of Hughes Electronic Corporationrsquos HS601-model satellite the Spacecraft Control Processor (SCP) of Mexicorsquos Solidaridad I communications satellite malfunctioned disrupting television radio and pager services The first incident had occurred on the Galaxy IV satellite causing similar communications disruptions in the United States during 1998 In the current malfunction operators in Iztapalapa and Hermosillo received a series of alarms indicating that the only functioning SCP on board the Satmex-owned craft had turned itself off The satellite had two SCPs on board and needed only one to carry out its communications relay properly but Solidaridad I already was running on its backup SCP having lost its first processor a year ago Engineers suspected that the cause of the incident was the growth of a tiny crystalline structure that leads to electrical shorts Hughes investigators had identified this type of malfunction in their satellites containing tin-plated relay switches and therefore had begun to use nickel-plated switches in new satellites to prevent future occurrences of such electrical shorts However Solidaridad I designed for 14 years of service in space had launched in 1993 before the conversion to nickel-plated switches The Solidaridad series comprising two satellites provided service to all of Mexico also extending to the southwestern United States the Caribbean and Central and South America The malfunction led to the loss of educational television programming in 12000 schools in Mexico mostly in remote rural areas where some students rely entirely on televised courses Satmex was transferring Solidaridad I users to the three other satellites in its fleet973

28 August A Russian Proton-K rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying into orbit the Russian Ministry of Defensersquos Raduga-1-5 spacecraft a military communications satellite with the alternate names Globus-1 and Cosmos 2372 Although the Globus-1 was a classified program news sources reported that the craft would use a geostationary orbit to serve

972 NASA ldquoGalileo Evidence Points to Possible Water World Under Europarsquos Icy Crustrdquo news release 00-131 25 August 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-131txt (accessed 6 May 2008) Margaret Kivelson et al ldquoGalileo Magnetometer Measurements A Stronger Case for a Subsurface Ocean at Europardquo Science 289 no 5483 (25 August 2000) 1340ndash1343 973 Justin Ray ldquoSatellite Failure Causes Communications Blackoutrdquo Spaceflight Now 29 August 2000

280


as a relay link for Russian military forces At the time of the launch many Raduga craft remained in orbit but only five were operational974

30 August NASArsquos JPL named Thomas C Duxbury Project Manager for JPLrsquos Stardust Mission launched in February 1999 to collect a sample from Comet Wild-2 and return it to Earth Duxbury who had served as the Missionrsquos Acting Project Manager for the past year replaced Kenneth Atkins who had been heading a program to develop leadership for JPLrsquos projects Duxbury had joined the Stardust project in 1996 as Mission Manager responsible for navigation mission design the ground-data system science-data management and mission operations Before working on the Stardust project Duxbury had served on planetary mission teams including several Mariner missions the Mars Viking mission Pioneer 10 and 11 to Jupiter and Saturn Voyager 1 and 2 to the outer planets the Soviet Phobos Mission to Mars the Mars Observer Mission and the Clementine Mission to study the Moon Concurrent with his position as Stardust Project Manager Duxbury planned to continue to serve as a member of the science teams for Mars Global Surveyorrsquos laser altimeter and for the ESArsquos Mars Express orbiter and lander as well as continuing as lead scientist for geodesy and cartography in the Mars Exploration Office975

The US General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report discussing workforce and safety issues of NASArsquos Space Shuttle Program The report assessed the impact of workforce reductions on the Shuttle program the challenges that NASA would face as it addressed its workforce issues and the status of planned safety and supportability upgrades to the Space Shuttle GAO identified 26 technical skills needed at JSC in Houston Texas as well as at other facilities in Florida Alabama and Mississippi In addition GAO found that the decrease from 3000 to 1800 federal employees in the Shuttle program workforce since 1995 had placed NASA at a ldquocritical juncturerdquo The Shuttle launch rate had dropped from eight launches in 1997 to three in 1999 a trend on the cusp of reversing itself in the aftermath of the July 1999 launch of Russiarsquos Zvezda module Moreover GAO reported signs of overwork and stress among NASA staff Worker demographics⎯twice as many workers over age 60 as under age 30⎯had compounded the problem of a declining workforce NASA officials welcomed the report although the results reflected ldquoa much harsher assessment of [S]huttle safety issues [than the assessment] prepared by NASA itself in response to an electrical short that accompanied the July 1999 launching of the [S]huttle Columbiardquo GAO also reported that NASA had terminated downsizing plans in December 1999 and had initiated efforts to begin hiring new staff Although it was developing safety and supportability upgrades which it would implement over the next five years NASA still faced programmatic and technical challenges such as a demanding schedule and undefined design and workforce requirements976

974 Justin Ray ldquoProton Rocket Lofts Russian Military Satelliterdquo Spaceflight Now 28 August 2000 Spacewarn Bulletin no 562 1 September 2000 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx562html (accessed 6 August 2008) 975 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoDuxbury Named Project Manager of Stardust Missionrdquo news release 2000shy084 30 August 2000 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases2000duxburyhtml (accessed 6 May 2008) 976 U S General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Shuttle Human Capital and Safety Upgrade Challenges Require Continued Attentionrdquo (report no GAONSIADGGD-00-186 Washington DC August 2000) httpwwwgaogov archive2000n200186pdf (accessed 9 May 2008) Mark Carreau ldquoUndersized Work Force Puts NASA at lsquoCritical Juncturersquordquo Houston Chronicle 31 August 2000

281


SEPTEMBER 2000

5 September A Sirius-2 communications satellite launched aboard a Russian Proton-K rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan The launch marked the second success for the Sirius Company which planned to broadcast digital radio to the United States Sirius had placed its first satellite in orbit on 1 July 2000 scheduling a third launch for November 2000977

6 September Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) selected Space Systems and Applications Inc of Lanham Maryland to provide engineering science and technology support for NASArsquos Space and Earth Science Directorates The value of the cost-plus-award-fee contract was US$2045 million over a period of five years Under the contract NASA required Space Systems and Applications to provide research and information technology services including scientific data analysis modeling and simulation of physical processes development of flight-project data systems and large-scale data management archival and delivery systems and systems analysis and programming These services would support a broad range of scientific disciplines⎯astronomy and astrophysics climatology and atmospheric science geodynamics land processes oceanography planetary studies solar and space plasma physics and solid earth geographics978

7 September NASA announced that on 3 September 2000 the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) aboard NASArsquos Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) satellite had detected an 11 million-square-mile (285 million-square-kilometer) ozone-depletion area⎯surpassing the ozone holersquos record of 105 million square miles (272 million square kilometers) set on 19 September 1998 Scientists investigating the extent of the ozone-depletion area expressed their surprise suggesting that early-spring conditions and an ldquoextremely intense Antarctic vortexrdquo⎯an upper-altitude stratospheric air current that moves around the continent⎯might partly explain the record-setting size Jack A Kaye of the Office of Earth Sciences Research Director at NASA Headquarters remarked that although scientists expect variations in the size of the ozone hole from one year to the next they plan to observe the evolution of the ozone-depletion area in the coming months to compare it with previous years Manager of NASArsquos Upper Atmosphere Research Program Michael J Kurylo suggested that the new data reinforced concerns about the fragile nature of the ozone layer indicating that although international agreements had curbed the production of ozone-destroying gases concentrations of those gases in the stratosphere were just reaching their peak levels Therefore he warned that it would be decades before the depletion area in the ozone layer would no longer occur annually Associate Administrator for Earth Science Enterprise Ghassem R Asrar commented that such discoveries demonstrated the value of long-term observations979

8 September

977 Reuters ldquoKazakhstan Russia Launches US Satellite from Kazakhstanrdquo 5 September 2000 978 NASA ldquoContract for Goddard Space Center Support Awardedrdquo news release C00-j 6 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-jtxt (accessed 25 April 2008) 979 NASA ldquoLargest-Ever Ozone Hole Observed over Antarcticardquo news release 00-137 7 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-137txt (accessed 25 April 2008)

282


Space Shuttle Atlantis Mission STS-106 launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida to prepare the International Space Station (ISS) for the arrival of its first crew The missionrsquos crew comprised Commander Terrence W Wilcutt Pilot Scott D Altman and Mission Specialists Daniel C Burbank Edward T Lu Yuri I Malenchenko Richard A Mastracchio and Boris V Morukov The purpose of STS-106 also known as ISS Flight 2A2b was to connect power data and communications cables to the Zvezda service module as well as to deliver supplies and to perform maintenance Although NASA officials had expressed concern that STS-106 might encounter a weather delay the approaching storm had stalled offshore so the Shuttle program experienced its first punctual launch since John H Glenn Jrrsquos historic flight in October 1998980

10 September Astronaut Edward T Lu and cosmonaut Yuri I Malenchenko conducted a spacewalk outside the ISS connecting nine power data and communications cables between the Russian-built Zvezda and Zarya modules Lu and Malenchenko also assembled and installed a 6-foot-long (18-metershylong) magnetometer boom on the Zvezda module to serve as a compass showing the relation of the ISS to Earth981

12 September NASA announced that scientists using the Chandra X-ray Observatory had confirmed the existence of ldquomiddleweightrdquo black holes Several groups of scientists used Chandra to focus on a mid-mass black hole located 600 light-years from the center of galaxy M82 Previous x-ray data from the German-US ROSAT (Roumlntgensatellite) and the Japan-US ASCA (Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics) had suggested the existence of a mid-mass black hole in M82 Scientists compared Chandrarsquos new high-resolution images with optical radio and infrared maps to determine that a single bright source was emitting most of the x-rays The scientists continued to observe M82 over an eight-month period noting that the intensity of the x-rays rose and fell every 600 seconds Philip Kaaret of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics explained that this behavior was similar to black holes swallowing gas from a nearby star or cloud Martin Ward of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom remarked that the findings opened ldquoa whole new field of researchrdquo982

13 September Astronaut Edward T Lu and cosmonaut Yuri I Malenchenko installed three new batteries in the Russian service module Zvezda which had launched with only five of its eight batteries to reduce its launch weight Meanwhile astronaut Daniel C Burbank and cosmonaut Boris V Morukov installed one of six batteries on the Russian-built control module Zarya Burbank and Morukov needed a hammer and chisel to remove four small nut plates which were obstructing a

980 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoAtlantis Thunders into Orbit on Space Station Missionrdquo 8 September 2000 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-106 International Space Station Flight 2A2brdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-106html (accessed 30 October 2008) 981 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-106rdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-106html (accessed 30 April 2008) NASA ldquoSTS-106 Extravehicular Activitiesrdquo httpspaceflightnasagovshuttle archivessts-106evaindexhtml (accessed 2 May 2008) 982 NASA ldquoChandra Clinches Case for Unexpected Black Hole Discoveryrdquo news release 00-140 12 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-140txt (accessed 25 April 2008)

283


pair of bolts the astronauts needed to loosen the bolts so that they could replace a voltage converter983

14 September NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin and H Fisk Johnson President of the Wisconsin-based private venture-capital company Fisk Ventures Inc (FVI) signed an agreement to ldquoexplore a new frontier in biotechnologyrdquo Johnson had approached NASA regarding its efforts to commercialize space activities suggesting a partnership NASA and FVI agreed to use NASArsquos bioreactor to develop commercial medical products The bioreactor technology creates a near-weightless environment enabling cells to grow three-dimensionally When raised in a traditional Petri dish growing cells are flat FVI had formed a joint venture with In Vitro Technologies Inc called StelSys LLC to focus on commercializing microgravity research in areas related to biological systems StelSys paid NASA a US$100000 licensing fee and a royalty of 5 percent of the companyrsquos profits capped at US$2 million for the rights to 13 patents for the bioreactor technology for five years NASA planned to use the bioreactor on the ISS and StelSys intended to use it to research infectious diseases and to develop a liver-assist device for patients in need of transplant surgery Goldin remarked that the agreement was ldquoa symbol of the success that can be achieved when government private industry and academia work together on the exploration of new frontiers for scientific technological and economic growthrdquo984

A GE-7 satellite built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems for GE American Communications (GE Americom) launched from Korou French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket The C-band satellite supplemented GE Americomrsquos fleet of 12 satellites servicing the Americas replacing the GE SATCOM C1 craft A member of the A2100 family of satellites the GE-7 joined four others⎯the GE-1 GE-2 GE-3 and GE-4⎯to provide distribution of cable broadcast television and radio business television and broadband data distribution across the contiguous United States Mexico the Caribbean and South America The GE-7 would provide ldquoservice to regional and national customers in-orbit protection for many current cable and radio customers plus critical telecommunications services delivered by ATampT Alascomrdquo985

NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science Edward J Weiler appeared before the US House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics to address the future of NASArsquos space science programs Weiler discussed NASArsquos problems in the previous year such as the loss of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander explaining that although NASA was developing a response to those losses it would need more funding if it were to prevent similar failures in the future House Subcommittee Chairperson Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) indicated that President William J Clinton had proposed increasing the space science budget by US$200 million over

983 NASA ldquoSTS-106rdquo C Bryson Hull for Associated Press ldquoAstronauts Installing Fresh Batteries in Space Stationrdquo 13 September 2000984 NASA ldquoLandmark Commercial Agreement Gives Biotechnology Research a New Dimensionrdquo news release 00shy143 14 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-143txt (accessed 25 April 2008) Laura Heinauer ldquoNASA Signs First Major Contract for Private Biotech Developmentrdquo Wall Street Journal 14 September 2000 985 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin-Built GE-7 Satellite Successfully Launched from Kourou French Guiana Launch Siterdquo news release 14 September 2000 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases2000Lock heedMartinBuiltGE7SatelliteSucchtml (accessed 25 April 2008)

284


each of the following four years NASArsquos budget reauthorization bill for FY 2001 added an additional US$19 million in funding for space science programs986

20 September Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida before dawn the 15th nighttime landing in the Shuttle programrsquos history Among the tasks that the crew had completed during the mission were delivering 3 tons (2700 kilograms or 27 tonnes) of supplies for the first permanent crew⎯including toiletries Russian and American meals medical kits and camera equipment⎯and installing the stationrsquos toilet an oxygen generator a treadmill and power and television cables NASA officials had decided to extend the mission an extra day to allow the crew more time to accomplish its work inside the space station N Wayne Hale STS-106 Flight Director explained that the mission had begun with 52 items on its list of tasks to accomplish but the number had increased to 74 different tasks large and small on board the ISS The only malfunction during the mission had been that of a newly installed battery which Russian Mission Control had ordered disconnected when it failed to charge properly987

21 September NASA selected 28 of 119 grant proposals totaling US$10 million over four years to conduct microgravity combustion research NASArsquos Office of Life and Microgravity Science and Applications which was sponsoring the grants would provide the researchers with access to its microgravity research facilities including drop tubes drop towers aircraft-flying parabolic trajectories and sounding rockets Twenty-six of the grants were for ground-based research and two were for flight-definition efforts four grants continued NASA-funded work but the remaining 24 entailed new research efforts988

Russian police announced that cosmonaut German S Titov the Soviet Unionrsquos second man in space and the first person to spend more than one day in orbit had been found dead at home at the age of 65 Although the police had not reported an official cause of death the media speculated that the cause was either carbon monoxide poisoning or a heart attack Titov had spent 25 hours and 18 minutes aboard the tiny Soviet Vostok-2 spacecraft on 6 and 7 August 1961 Fellow Soviet Yuri Gagarin had made the first flight on Vostok-1 on 12 April flying for less than 2 hours and US astronaut Alan B Shepard Jr had followed Gagarinrsquos mission with a 15-minute suborbital flight on 5 May 1961 Titov worked on the Buran program during the 1980s attempting to create a Russian space shuttle but the Soviet Union abandoned the project after the Russian shuttle had made one unpiloted flight After the fall of the Soviet Union Titov had entered politics representing the Communist Party on the defense committee of the State Duma lower house989

Following a 24-hour delay caused by a computer anomaly NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) successfully launched the Lockheed Martinndashbuilt NOAAshy

986 Space Business News ldquoMoney Management Are Key To Avoiding NASA Failures House Panel Hearsrdquo 27 September 2000 987 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoSpace Shuttle Atlantis Touches Down Successfullyrdquo 20 September 2000 988 NASA ldquoNASA Announces Research Grants in Microgravity Combustion Sciencerdquo news release 00-144 21 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-144txt (accessed 25 April 2008) 989 Reuters ldquoRussiarsquos 2nd Cosmonaut German Titov Dies in Saunardquo 21 September 2000

285


L spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Titan II rocket Ground controllers confirmed that the craft had deployed its solar array and verified a power-positive condition NASA and NOAA had designed the satellite the second in a series of five polar-orbiting spacecraft to collect meteorological data and to transmit the information to users worldwide NOAArsquos National Weather Service planned to use the craftrsquos data for long-range weather and climate forecasts Although NASA had managed the project of building and launching the satellite it intended to transfer operational control to NOAA 10 days following the launch990

NASA released time-lapse movies created from images produced by the Hubble Space Telescope showing ldquospectacular outbursts from young starsrdquo changing ldquodramatically over a period of just weeks or monthsrdquo NASA had combined individual images of young star systems XZ Tauri and HH 30 in the Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud captured over several years to create the time-lapse movies Documenting the activity of the early stages of starsrsquo lives the movies demonstrated that images ldquotaken of the universe today wonrsquot necessarily look the same as those snapped a few months from nowrdquo991

26 September Administrator Daniel S Goldin presented awards to three minority contractors at NASArsquos annual Minority Business and Advocates Awards Ceremony RS Information Services (RSIS) based in McLean Virginia won Minority Contractor of the Year Rigging and Welding Specialists Inc a Native Americanndashowned business won Minority Subcontractor of the Year and Pace and Waite Inc won Women-Owned Business of the Year In addition NASA recognized advocates for innovative approaches to using minority- and women-owned businesses awarding NASArsquos Exceptional Achievement Medal to Kenneth Martindale and Rodney J Etchberger of Johnson Space Center and to Shantaram S Pai of Glenn Research Center Furthermore NASA recognized five individuals for outstanding achievements and three NASA field centers for meeting or exceeding all socioeconomic business goals for FY 1999992

NASA named award-winning broadcast journalist Bob Jacobs as Chief of News and Information at NASA Headquarters Before joining NASA Jacobs had served for four years as Projects Manager for the Washington-based Broadcast Technology Division of the Associated Press where he helped to develop and implement newsroom management technology Clients had included the British Broadcasting Corporation ESPN National Public Radio and CBS News Jacobs had won an Emmy award and other regional honors for excellence in journalism993

Sally K Ride the first female astronaut from the United States to travel into space resigned her position as President of Spacecom to concentrate on her education career She had worked with Spacecom founder Lou Dobbs former host of CNNrsquos Moneyline since the companyrsquos start-up

990 NOAA ldquoNOAA-L Weather Satellite Successfully Launchedrdquo news release 2000-069 21 September 2000 httpwwwpublicaffairsnoaagovreleases2000sep00noaa00069html (accessed 29 April 2008) Associated Press ldquoWeather Satellite Launched After Delayrdquo 21 September 2000 991 NASA ldquoHubble Movies Show the Changing Faces of Young Starsrdquo news release N00-044 21 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewsnote2edt2000n00-044txt (accessed 25 April 2008) 992 NASA ldquoNASA To Honor Minority Businessesrdquo news release 00-148 25 September 2000 httpwwwnasa govhomehqnews200000-148txt (accessed 25 April 2008) 993 NASA ldquoNews Chief Named at NASA Headquartersrdquo news release 00-150 26 September 2000 httpwww nasagovhomehqnews200000-150txt (accessed 25 April 2008)

286


in June 1999 and had been the companyrsquos president for the past year Ride would continue her leave of absence from the University of California at San Diego where she is a physics professor throughout the remainder of the fall academic term994

NASA announced that a team of Lockheed Martin scientists using NASArsquos Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) spacecraft to observe coronal loops⎯coils of hot electrified gas⎯believed they had located the source of the heating mechanism that makes the Sunrsquos corona 300 times hotter than its visible surface A thirty-year-old theory had assumed that the coronal loops heated evenly but the TRACE observations had indicated that most of the heating occurs at the base of the loops near the point from which they emerge and return to the solar surface The team had observed 41 loops extending from 2500 miles (4000 kilometers) to more than 180000 miles (290000 kilometers) from the solar surface and had found that although threads within shorter loops heat more evenly longer threads cool noticeably as they attain height The team had calculated the loopsrsquo energy levels and estimated that ldquoheating typically occurs in the first 6000 miles of a looprsquos lengthrdquo Richard Fisher head of the Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics at NASArsquos GSFC remarked that understanding how the coronal loops function could shed light on coronal-mass ejections (CMEs) CMEs can disrupt or destroy satellite components orbiting Earth and prompt surges in electrical transmission lines causing blackouts on Earth995

27 September Arianespace the France-based European satellite launch company announced that it had won a contract to launch three more satellites for INTELSAT the international satellite corporation based in Washington DC Arianespace already held a contract to launch three other satellites in the INTELSAT IX series INTELSAT had scheduled six of the seriesrsquo seven spacecraft for launch from mid-2001 through the end of 2002 on Ariane 4 or Ariane 5 launch vehicles from Europersquos spaceport in French Guiana California-based Space SystemsLoral was building the 47-tonne (4700-kilogram or 52-ton) satellites In 1965 INTELSAT had launched the worldrsquos first commercial communications satellite Early Bird996

Lockheed Martin announced that for the third time in four years the Air Traffic Control Association had awarded the company its Industry Award recognizing Lockheedrsquos outstanding achievement in and contribution to the science of air traffic control The award specifically recognized Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management for its worldwide support of air trafficndash control systems The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) the German Civil Aviation Authority and the United Kingdomrsquos National Air Traffic Services Ltd Had all nominated the company for the award997

994 Bloomberg News ldquoRide Leaves Spacecom Top Post⎯For 1st US Female Astronaut in Space Itrsquos Back to Educationrdquo 27 September 2000 995 NASA ldquoFountains of Fire Illuminate Solar Mysteryrdquo news release 00-146 26 September 2000 httpwww nasagovhomehqnews200000-146txt (accessed 25 April 2008) Peter N Spotts ldquoScientists Begin To Unravel a Stubborn Solar Mysteryrdquo Christian Science Monitor 27 September 2000 996 Reuters ldquoFrance Arianespace in Deal To Launch 3 INTELSAT Satellitesrdquo 27 September 2000 997 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Receives Prestigious Air Traffic Control Association Awardrdquo news release 27 September 2000 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases2000LockheedMartinReceivesPrestigious Aihtml (accessed 25 April 2008)

287


28 September NASArsquos Langley Research Center awarded contracts valued at US$18 million to two companies for operating airport-surface surveillance systems intended to prevent runway accidents a top safety priority of the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board The contracts required Sensis Corporation of Dewitt New York and Rannoch Corporation of Alexandria Virginia to operate the Airport Traffic Identification System (ATIDS) and the Dynamic Runway Occupancy Measurement Systems (DROMS) at Detroitrsquos Metropolitan Wayne International Airport for six months establishing and validating the systems in a ldquoliverdquo environment The contracts also required Sensis to deploy and evaluate DROMS at Memphis International Airport and to interface the system with the existing Sensis-operated ATIDS at that airport998

29 September NASA announced its agreement with Lockheed Martin on a plan for the X-33 space plane program The agreed plan included aluminum fuel tanks for hydrogen fuel a revised payment schedule and a target launch date in 2003 contingent on Lockheed Martinrsquos winning additional funding under the Space Launch Initiative for completing the project NASA had funded the project through March 2001 The restructured plan focused on ldquoproviding milestone paymentsrdquo to Lockheed Martinrsquos team following the completion of tests and the delivery of hardware and software systems this year The plan also gave greater emphasis to mission safety quality and mission success Arthur G Stephenson Director of NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center pointed out that despite setbacks the programrsquos successes had included the creation of technology applicable to the space program and to the commercial aircraft industry such as a revolutionary new rocket engine a robust reusable metallic thermal-protection system and software and sensors that automatically determine and predict failures and errors before they affect the flight999

NASA announced the restructuring of the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (OLSMA) part of the Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise (HEDS) OLSMA renamed the Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR) would become a separate enterprise focusing on scientific research working closely with HEDS to facilitate long-term exploration of space The OBPR would comprise five divisions the Physical Sciences Division the Fundamental Space Biology Division the Biomedical and Human Support Research Division the Division of Research Integration and the Division of Policy and Program Integration NASA named Kathie L Olsen as Acting Associate Administrator to return to her position as Chief Scientist after NASA had filled the position permanently1000

OCTOBER 2000

1 October

998 NASA ldquoContracts Awarded for Airport Surface Surveillance Systemsrdquo news release C00-m 28 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-mtxt (accessed 25 April 2008) 999 NASA ldquoNASA Lockheed Martin Agree on X-33 Planrdquo news release 00-157 29 September 2000 httpwww nasagovhomehqnews200000-157txt (accessed 25 April 2008) 1000 NASA ldquoNASA Creates New Enterprise Focusing on Biologyrdquo news release 00-158 29 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-158txt (accessed 25 April 2008)

288


New NASA research published in the 1 October issue of the American Meteorological Societyrsquos Journal of Climate warned that clouds might not help counteract climate-warming trends Anthony D Del Genio of NASArsquos Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City had analyzed observations of low clouds over land collected between 1994 and 1997 as part of the US Department of Energyrsquos Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program Del Genio had found that clouds are thinner when temperatures were higher a phenomenon occurring in any weather condition or season and at any time of day Some climate theories had predicted that high temperatures would cause thicker clouds because of an increase in water vapor but Del Genio explained that during warmer temperatures the bottoms of clouds rise and become thinner This occurs because clouds that form over a warm dry air mass must rise higher before becoming sufficiently saturated with water to form a cloud base Thinner clouds are less capable of reflecting sunlight back into space and are therefore unable to act as a ldquonatural sun shieldrdquo Del Geniorsquos findings corroborated long-term worldwide satellite observations published using the NASA-funded International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) database The ISCCP a global composite of cloud observations from international weather satellites began showing a link between cloud thinning and temperature in 19921001

International Launch Services (ILS) a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Khrunichev State Research and S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia launched a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan The Proton launch the fourth in the year for ILS successfully placed into orbit a United Statesndashbuilt GE-1A communications satellite serving customers in parts of Asia including China the Philippines and India1002

3 October Russian space experts agreed that the Mir space station was in fine condition to continue orbiting Earth and the Russian government extended the stationrsquos time in space indefinitely after the Netherlands-based MirCorp agreed to fund a new mission Russiarsquos council of space engineers known as the Council of Chief Designers authorized plans to launch a Progress cargo spacecraft in the middle of October to deliver fuel and equipment to Mir1003

5 October European Space Agency (ESA) engineers announced the discovery of a flaw in the European receiver on NASArsquos Cassini spacecraft prompting an inquiry into why engineers had not identified the problem before NASA had launched the craft and how the issue could be resolved before the craft reached its destination Cassinirsquos probe data relay subsystem (PDRS) lacked sufficient bandwidth to navigate the Doppler shift with the Huygens probe as the probe parachuted toward the surface of Saturnrsquos moon Titan Therefore the system would be unable to recover all of the data that Huygensrsquos six instruments would generate Cassini and Huygens launched on 15 October 1997 with Huygens scheduled to separate from Cassini on 6 November 2004 break through Titanrsquos atmosphere on 27 November 2004 and descend to the moonrsquos

1001 NASA ldquoRevised⎯NASA Scientist Predicts Less Climate Cooling from Cloudsrdquo news release 00-151 3 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-151txt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1002 Jim Banke ldquoProton Rocket Lifts American Satellite into Earth Orbitrdquo Spacecom 2 October 2000 httpwww spacecommissionlauncheslaunchesproton_launch_001001html (accessed 14 April 2008) 1003 MirCorp ldquoMirCorp Statement on the Mir Space Stationrsquos Futurerdquo news release 3 October 2000 Associated Press ldquoRussian Space Experts Determine Mir Fit To Continue Orbital Flightrdquo 3 October 2000

289


surface using a parachute system The mission plan called for Huygens to measure the composition and winds of Titanrsquos atmosphere and to collect images The probe would send the data via the S-band PDRS to Cassini which would then transmit the data to Earth However the ESA stated that the inadequate bandwidth of the PDRS meant that link margins would degrade because the Doppler shift on the data subcarrier would be outside the bandwidth of the receiver-phase lock loop leading to a potential loss in the link of 10dB over what engineers had assumed for the mission1004

6 October NASA announced the selection of Sverdrup Technology Inc to fulfill a contract providing engineering science and technical services at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) The two-year contract with three one-year priced options valued at US$300 million over five years would go into effect on 15 October1005

9 October The High Energy Transient Explorer Mission (HETE-2) launched aboard a Hybrid Pegasus expendable launch vehicle from Kwajalein missile-range facility on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean The Center for Space Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology headed the HETE-2 mission designed to detect and localize gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) using a set of instruments that would allow simultaneous observations of the GRBs The craft would compute locations of GRBs and immediately transmit the coordinates to ground-based observers HETEshy2 an international collaboration among the United States Japan France and Italy replaced the original HETE spacecraft which was lost following a rocket malfunction in November 19961006

11 October Space Shuttle Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida on Mission STS-92 also known as ISS Assembly Flight 33A to carry out an 11-day construction mission requiring four scheduled spacewalks at the International Space Station (ISS) Discoveryrsquos crew⎯Commander Brian Duffy Pilot Pamela A Melroy and Mission Specialists Koichi Wakata Leroy Chiao Peter J K Wisoff Michael Lopez-Alegria and William S McArthur⎯was transporting a truss and a docking port to the station planning to install them before the arrival of the first scheduled ISS crew at the end of October

13 October Responding to a 25 January 2000 article in the New York Times alleging that grants in the midshy1990s had benefited the Russian civilian agency Biopreparat NASArsquos Office of Inspector General published a report stating that NASA had not followed the US Department of Statersquos guidelines for administering biotechnology grants to Russia thereby inadvertently funding germ-warfare laboratories The Russian government owned 51 percent of Biopreparat the organization

1004 Frank Morring Jr ldquoESA Sets Inquiry After Tests Reveal Flaw in Titan Probe Linkrdquo Aerospace Daily 6 October 2000 1005 NASA ldquoTennessee Technology Firm Selected for $300 Million Contractrdquo news release c00-n 6 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-ntxt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1006 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ldquoThe High Energy Transient Explorer Mission (HETE-2)rdquo httpimagine gsfcnasagovdocssats_n_datamissionshete2html (accessed 14 April 2008) NASA ldquoHETE-2 Flies in Search of Gamma-Ray Burstsrdquo news release 00-160 2 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-160txt (accessed 1 April 2008)

290


that had conducted most of the Soviet Unionrsquos biological warfare research since the 1970s At the time of the articlersquos publication Biopreparat was continuing to research pathogens that had been included in the Soviet biological warfare program The Inspector General found that ldquoalmost three-fourths of US$168 million in NASA grants intended for space biotechnology work found its way to lsquoinstitutions that had been affiliated with Russiarsquos biological warfare programrsquordquo Therefore the Inspector General asserted that NASA had not followed the Department of Statersquos guidelines requiring NASA to ldquoregularly visit and participate in the research it was funding at Russian institutes that had been part of the Soviet biological warfare programrdquo NASA agreed with the Inspector Generalrsquos sole recommendation to practice ldquoinvasive collaborationrdquo in the future when funding biotechnology research in countries with known or suspected biological weapons programs1007

Space Shuttle Discovery arrived at the ISS Shuttle Commander Brian Duffy successfully executed the rendezvous without the Shuttlersquos radar relying on a star-tracking system and on handheld lasers operated by his crew The Ku-band antenna had failed after launch disrupting the radar and television link The Shuttle docking was NASArsquos first conducted without radar1008

The ESA signed a four-year contract with two industry groups⎯Sarcom led by Spot Image of Toulouse France and the Emma consortium led by Eurimage of Rome⎯granting the two groups ldquopriority access to the Envisat radar remote-sensing satelliterdquo scheduled for launch in 2001 as well as imagery from the ERS-2 spacecraft already in orbit About the new business relationship a major policy shift for the ESA Acting Envisat Mission Manager Guumlnther Kohlhammer remarked that the ESA had realized that it needed to change so that it could develop new markets The contract gave commercial orders for the satellite images priority over scientific requests setting new limits on the type and number of users ESA would grant access to data without paying commercial prices1009

14 October Despite unexpected problems astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Discovery installed a 9-ton (8200-kilogram or 82-tonne) structural truss on the Unity module of the ISS completing one of the major objectives of the mission The Z1 truss held four mass gyroscopes and the stationrsquos main Ku-band and S-band communications antennas In addition the truss provided a temporary attachment point for a set of solar arrays scheduled to arrive during a December Shuttle mission The astronauts faced several obstacles during the installation process A short in the Shuttlersquos payload circuitry disabled the computerized camera system needed to orient the truss for attachment causing a 2frac12-hour delay However the astronauts were able to wire a backup computer into an alternate power source restoring power to the Space Vision System which NASA had programmed to ldquodetermine the trussrsquos precise location and orientation with respect to the station by measuring the locations of the targets on its surface as viewed from different

1007 NASA Office of Inspector General ldquoNASA Oversight of Russian Biotechnology Research 1994ndash1997rdquo (NASA report no G-00-07 Washington DC 13 October 2000) httpoignasagovoldinspections_assessmentsg-00-007pdf (accessed 8 April 2008) Frank Morring Jr ldquoNASA Seen Funding Russian Germ-Warfare Labs Through Lax Oversightrdquo Aerospace Daily 18 October 2000 1008 Associated Press ldquoBad Antenna Blacks Out Shuttlersquos Televisionrdquo Charleston Gazette (SC) 13 October 2000 New York Times ldquoAstronauts Rendezvous with Space Stationrdquo 14 October 2000 Los Angeles Times ldquoShuttle Discovery Docks Safely with Space Stationrdquo 14 October 2000 1009 Peter B de Selding ldquoESA Hands Radar Satellite Responsibility to Industryrdquo Space News 30 October 2000

291


payload bay camerasrdquo The astronauts had to delay their work again when the Space Vision System failed to generate reliable data during certain orbital lighting conditions requiring astronaut William S McArthur to recalibrate the system1010

15 October Astronauts Leroy Chiao and William S McArthur made a spacewalk outside the ISS to link electrical cables to the stationrsquos new truss and to deploy the main antenna The pair routed six power- and data-cables between the truss and the station as well as four backup cables Tests indicated that all connections worked The astronauts moved one of the trussrsquos two antennas to a temporary location out of the way of future construction work mounted the main antenna a 78shyinch-wide (2-meter-wide) dish to a 12-foot (37-meter) boom and extended the main antenna According to NASArsquos schedule the ISS crew would turn on the antenna during an April 2001 Shuttle mission1011

16 October NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced the appointment of Baruch S Blumberg 1976 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology and Medicine as Senior Advisor to the Administrator effective immediately While continuing in his position as Director of NASArsquos Astrobiology Institute Blumberg would also provide guidance to NASArsquos newly created Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR) an interdisciplinary effort combining research in biology physics chemistry and engineering Goldin also announced that NASA would begin a search headed by Blumberg and NASA Chief Scientist Kathie L Olsen to fill the position of Associate Administrator for the new OBPR and other key positions Olsen would serve as Acting Associate Administrator until NASA had filled the position1012

Three astronauts attached a new docking port to the ISS with two of the crew spacewalking and one operating Discoveryrsquos robotic arm from inside the Shuttle Astronauts Peter J K ldquoJeffrdquo Wisoff and Michael Lopez-Alegria assigned to work outside the ISS had difficulty loosening the latches securing the docking port inside Discoveryrsquos cargo bay However once they had freed it Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata lifted the 2700-pound (1200-kilogram) port using the Shuttlersquos robotic arm and positioned it on the space station When the port was within 1 foot (03 meters) of its position the astronauts outside gave Wakata ldquoinvaluablerdquo instructions necessary because the crew was working without the assistance of the camera at the end of the robotic arm The camera had been out of commission since the short circuit on 14 October1013

17 October Russia launched a Progress supply spacecraft to deliver fuel to the uninhabited Mir space station which was slipping from orbit Increased solar flare activity had expanded the atmosphere creating friction between Mir and the thin gases above Earth and causing the station to descend

1010 William Harwood ldquoStructural Truss Added to Spine of Space Station Shuttle Astronauts Overcome Camera Systemrsquos Short Circuitrdquo Washington Post 16 October 2000 1011 Michael Cabbage ldquoDiscovery Spacewalk Goes Off Without a Hitch Crew Members Finished a Six-Hour Task that Included Hooking Up a Truss and an Antennardquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 16 October 2000 1012 NASA ldquoNobel Prize Laureate Appointed as Senior NASA Advisorrdquo news release 00-164 16 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-164txt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1013 Marcia Dunn for the Associated Press ldquoDocking Port Nudged Carefully into Placerdquo Sun-Sentinel (Ft Lauderdale FL) 17 October 2000

292


steadily ever since its last crew had returned to Earth in June after a 73-day mission The fuel would enable the station to achieve a higher orbit preventing it from falling into thicker layers of the atmosphere and burning up Some Russian politicians had called for disposal of the station and US space officials had urged the Russian government to dedicate its ldquoscarce space fundsrdquo to the ISS However MirCorp a private company based in the Netherlands had leased time on Mir and agreed to fund the Progress launch thereby saving the station1014

18 October NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin recognized members of the Space Shuttlersquos ice and debris inspection team for their work on 10 October leading to the discovery of a stray 4-inch (10shycentimeter) pin near the Shuttlersquos external fuel tank hours before the scheduled launch of STSshy92 In response to the find NASA had delayed the launch for 24 hours to allow the team to retrieve the pin thereby preventing the damage that would have ensued if the pin had been sucked into the Shuttlersquos thermal protection system or into a main engine Goldin awarded employees Gregory N Katnik and Jorge E Rivera NASArsquos Exceptional Achievement Medal an honor recognizing significant contributions to the mission of NASA through substantial and significant improvements in operations efficiency service financial savings science or technology United Space Alliance employees Michael Barber John B Blue and Thomas F Ford received NASArsquos Public Service Medal an award given to individuals who are not government employees but make exceptional contributions to NASArsquos mission1015

In preparation for the December arrival of a pair of solar panels astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Peter J K ldquoJeffrdquo Wisoff cleaned up the top of the newly installed truss on the ISS The two men also deployed a tray on the truss which would hold the connections between the stationrsquos central structure and the Destiny laboratory module built by the United States and scheduled for installation in January Next the spacewalkers tested ldquomini-jetpacksrdquo known as Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue or SAFER NASA intended the nitrogen-powered jetpacks for use only in emergencies such as rescuing an injured or incapacitated spacewalker With only limited fuel supplies in the jetpacks each of the astronautsrsquo moves had to be deliberate each test maneuver lasted approximately 3 minutes while the astronaut traveled a distance of about 50 feet (15 meters) The astronauts remained tethered to the Shuttlersquos robotic arm throughout the tests1016

19 October During their only full day inside the ISS Shuttle crew members spent their last day before heading back to Earth transferring supplies wiping down the stationrsquos walls with fungicide to prevent mold and mildew and testing four gyroscopes installed earlier in the mission The crew spun the gyroscopes briefly at 100 revolutions per minute and the gyroscopes functioned as expected1017

1014 Associated Press ldquoRussia Launches Progress Cargo Space Shiprdquo 17 October 2000 1015 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Inspection Team Rewarded for Its lsquoEagle Eyesrsquordquo news release 00-165 18 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-165txt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1016 C Bryson Hull for Associated Press ldquoDiscovery Astronauts Head Out for Final Day of Spacewalksrdquo 18 October 2000 Associated Press ldquoDiscoveryrsquos Crew Zips Around Bay on New Jetpacksrdquo USA Today 19 October 2000 1017 C Bryson Hull for Associated Press ldquoShuttle Station To Part Ways After Weeklong Construction Missionrdquo 20 October 2000

293


20 October SkyCorp signed a commercial Space Act agreement with NASA providing that SkyCorp deploy into orbit either from the Space Shuttle or from the ISS a satellite containing an Internet server NASA and SkyCorp planned to test the idea as a ldquoproof of conceptrdquo for a Low Earth Orbit 544 satellite constellation offering Internet access on a global scale SkyCorp chose to launch an Apache server on a small satellite containing an Apple 500 MHz Power Mac G4 The agreement with NASA outlined SkyCorprsquos novel idea of launching a partially assembled satellite aboard a Space Shuttle Astronauts would assemble the craft in space before tossing it from a Shuttle or ISS airlock into an independent orbit SkyCorp named its concept Gossamer Typically engineers assemble a satellite fully on Earth and it must withstand the stress of launch A satellite built according to the Gossamer concept would only need to retain structural integrity in microgravity greatly simplifying guidance navigation and control requirements1018

23 October Chairman and founder of Beal Aerospace Technologies Inc Andrew Beal announced his decision to cease all business operations effective immediately The company had sought to develop low-cost reliable commercial space launch systems and had ldquomade significant advances in low cost hydrogen peroxide propulsion systemsrdquo Beal expressed confidence that despite the companyrsquos cost overruns and schedule delays Beal Aerospace Technologies could have successfully developed its BA-2C rocket-launch system if it had remained in operation Beal outlined the risk factors that had been beyond the companyrsquos control and had led to the decision to cease operations 1) NASArsquos and the US governmentrsquos commitment to the subsidization of competing launch systems 2) federal laws mandating the companyrsquos ldquopotential liability for pre-existing environmental contamination at the only available Cape Canaveral launchpadsrdquo and 3) uncertainty about receiving approval from the US Department of State to launch from the companyrsquos launch facilities in Guyana Beal remarked that government subsidization of launch systems was the primary reason that the company had to choose either to become a government contractor like the Boeing Company and Lockheed Martin or to cease operations1019

24 October NASArsquos Langley Research Center selected Swales and Associates Inc to provide research and development engineering and support services under a contract valued at up to US$240 million over five years Specific work areas covered under the contract included full-spectrum aerodynamics gas dynamics fluid dynamics aerothermodynamics acoustics and aeroacoustics metallic and nonmetallic structures and materials and spaceborne and airborne systems1020

Space Shuttle Discovery landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California ending the 100th

mission of the Shuttle program Poor weather conditions had prevented the Shuttlersquos scheduled

1018 SkyCorp ldquoSkyCorp Announces Space Act Agreement with NASA To Fly First Internet Webserver in Spacerdquo news release 20 October 2000 Keith Cowing ldquoSkyCorp Signs Agreement with NASA To Fly the First Webserver in Space⎯and It Will Be a Mac G4rdquo SpaceRefcom 23 October 2000 1019 Beal Aerospace Technologies Inc ldquoStatement from Andrew Beal Regarding Cease of Operations by Beal Aerospacerdquo news release 23 October 2000 1020 NASA ldquoNASA Awards Support Services Contract to Maryland Firmrdquo news release C00-o 24 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-otxt (accessed 1 April 2008)

294


landing in Florida on 22 October Edwards had opened as a backup site on 23 October but wind and rainy weather had prevented a landing at either site until 24 October The landing was the first Shuttle landing at Edwards since poor weather had prevented a Shuttle landing in Florida in March 1996 In the early years of the program Shuttles had typically landed at Edwards Air Force Base but later both launches and landings became the functions of KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida1021

26 October NASA announced the findings of an investigation into the 16 June incident involving the Space Shuttlersquos main engine The team headed by Robert L Sackheim Assistant Director for Space Propulsion at NASArsquos MSFC had determined that 24 square inches (155 square centimeters) of tape had fallen into the Shuttle enginersquos fuel system and that nobody had noticed the tape before the enginersquos test firing The tapersquos location had caused the enginersquos temperature to increase rapidly beyond normal operating limits damaging some components of the enginersquos fuel pump According to Sackheim the engine controller had performed according to its design shutting down the engine 5 seconds into the planned 200-second test when it sensed a temperature exceeding safe limits Sackheimrsquos team had concluded ldquothe handling of accounting for and inspecting for loose materials used to process and rebuild engines during normal operations were inadequaterdquo The test had been a ldquotemperature marginrdquo demonstration undertaken as part of the developmental phase of a more robust Pratt amp Whitney Advanced Technology High Pressure Fuel Turbopump The engine had not been in flight configuration but had been a unit in a testing process aimed at validating the prototype enginersquos ability to operate at higher-thanshynormal temperatures1022

The Russian government earmarked funds to send two Progress cargo spacecraft to the Mir space station announcing that it would wait until February 2001 to make a final decision about the stationrsquos fate Earlier Deputy Prime Minister Ilya I Klebanov had explained that the decision the Russian government had been wavering about for more than a year rested on the availability of private funds to keep the station in orbit Executives from MirCorp had promised the Russian government that the company would raise between US$100 million and US$170 million by next year but Russian space officials were skeptical of MirCorprsquos ability to meet this commitment MirCorp had yet to pay the US$10 million it owed Russia for the 17 October launch of a Progress cargo spacecraft delivering fuel to Mir1023

NASA announced that it planned to implement a new Mars Exploration Program over the following two decades NASA planned six major missions during the next 10 years launching the Mars Odyssey orbiter mission in 2001 twin Mars Exploration Rovers in 2003 and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter⎯a powerful scientific orbiter⎯in 2005 Additional plans included the development and launch possibly as early as 2007 of a ldquolong-range long-duration mobile science laboratoryrdquo which would ldquopave the way for a future sample return missionrdquo NASA also

1021 Washington Times ldquoShuttle Lands at Edwards for First Time since 1996 Marks 100th Mission of US Programrdquo 25 October 2000 Matthew Fordahl for Associated Press ldquoDiscovery Lands in Californiardquo 25 October 2000 1022 NASA ldquoShuttle Main Engine Test Investigation Points to Fuel System Contaminationrdquo news release 00-170 26 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-170txt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1023 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoRussia Earmarks Funds for Mirrdquo 26 October 2000

295


proposed to create a new line of small missions called Scout missions involving airborne vehicles or small landers NASA would select designs for the Scout spacecraft from proposals submitted by the scientific community Besides sending additional scientific orbiters rovers and landers to Mars during the second decade of the program NASA announced its plans to launch its first sample-return mission in 2014 with a second mission in 2016 The new program incorporated ldquolessons learned from previous mission successes and failuresrdquo and built on recent scientific discoveries Although NASA led the revamped program the Mars missions also included international participants particularly France and Italy whose space agencies had agreed to conduct collaborative scientific orbital and surface investigations as well as to contribute sample collection-and-return systems telecommunications assets and launch services1024

30 October NASA awarded Lockheed Martin Space Systems a US$115 billion six-year contract to produce 35 additional super-lightweight external tanks for the Space Shuttle Program the sixth production of tanks and the first composed entirely of super-lightweight tanks The contract covered the manufacture assembly test and delivery of the tanks as well as the operations and maintenance of NASArsquos Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and activities at MSFC and KSC Jerry W Smelser Manager of MSFCrsquos External Tank Project Office described the contract as designed to ldquoassure the delivery of a quality product and to reward the contractor and employees on the basis of performancerdquo1025

President William J Clinton signed into law H R 1654 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2000 authorizing funding for ldquoa robust space and aeronautics program for the Nationrdquo Clinton commended bipartisan efforts to pass an authorization bill funding NASArsquos priorities such as building the ISS improving Space Shuttle safety and using the Space Launch Initiative to reduce the cost of access to space However Clinton criticized the bill for limiting ldquoNASArsquos flexibility to pursue a promising commercial habitation modulerdquo for the ISS saying that the bill included several ldquoobjectionable provisionsrdquo and only one of the 14 legislative provisions that his administration had proposed1026

31 October The first crew to inhabit the ISS launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on its four-month mission A veteran of three US Space Shuttle missions William M Shepherd commanded Expedition I Crew members with whom Shepherd had trained since 1996 were two cosmonauts Pilot Yuri P Gidzenko of the Russian air force and Flight Engineer Sergei K Krikalev a veteran of four Russian and US space missions With 484 days logged in orbit Krikalev was one of the worldrsquos most experienced space travelers1027

1024 NASA ldquoNASA Outlines Mars Exploration Program for Next Two Decadesrdquo news release 00-171 26 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-171txt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1025 NASA ldquoNASA Awards $115 Billion Contract for Shuttle External Tanksrdquo news release C00-p 30 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-ptxt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1026 US Newswire ldquoClinton Statement on Signing of the lsquoNational Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2000rsquordquo 30 October 2000

296


NOVEMBER 2000

2 November The first International Space Station (ISS) crew Expedition I arrived at the new station where they planned to live for the next four and one-half months The crewrsquos Soyuz craft automatically docked at a port on the Zvezda habitation module The Russian-built NASA-financed Zarya propulsion-and-storage module attached to the other end of Zvezda was loaded with supplies and equipment delivered by recent Shuttle missions Unless an emergency or breakdown occurred the multi-hatch Unity module would remain off limits A Shuttle crew had installed a structural truss on the Unity module in October and during a mission scheduled for early December another crew would attach a set of solar arrays to the truss Without the solar arrays the station did not have enough power to heat the module properly or to control the dew point to prevent dangerous condensation The ISS crew and their US and Russian managers temporarily named the station Alpha at least for the duration of the Expedition I mission1028

3 November NASA announced that the Chandra X-ray Observatory had detected iron-emission lines in the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) marking the first time such lines had been ldquounambiguously detectedrdquo in association with GRBs and the first time scientists had been able to measure their properties precisely in x-ray wavelengths Luigi Piro lead author of a paper published in the 3 November issue of the journal Science explained that the discovery provided an important clue to understanding the origins of the bursts The new data enabled scientists to rule out the theory that two neutron stars or black holes collide to cause a GRB one of various theories about how the bursts originate Instead Piro suggested that the bursts were more likely the result of ldquosomething similar to a supernova explosion but much more powerfulrdquo1029

6 November Jason Allen Diekman of Mission Viejo California pled guilty to federal charges of computer crimes after negotiating a deal with prosecutors Prosecutors had charged Diekman in September with illegal hacking and with using stolen credit card numbers to purchase US$6000 worth of computer equipment and other items He had confessed to investigators that he had hacked into ldquohundreds maybe thousandsrdquo of computers over two years including systems at the University of California at Los Angeles Harvard University Cornell University the University of California at San Diego and California State University at Fullerton Diekmanrsquos most serious confessed invasions had occurred at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where he had gained root-level access to two computer systems and at Stanford University where he had

1027 John Daniszewski ldquoCrew of 3 Blasts Off To Make a Home of Space Stationrdquo Los Angeles Times 31 October 2000 1028 William Harwood ldquoCrew of lsquoAlpharsquo Males Moves into Space Station Docking Complete NASA Chief Allows Namersquos Use for Nowrdquo Washington Post 3 November 2000 1029 NASA ldquoNASArsquos Chandra Captures Telling Gamma-Ray Afterglowrdquo news release 00-173 3 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-173txt (accessed 7 April 2008) L Piro et al ldquoObservation of X-ray Lines from a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB991216) Evidence of Moving Ejecta from the Progenitorrdquo Science 290 no 5493 (3 November 2000) 955ndash958

297


gained control over 24 systems two of them owned by NASA and containing flight-control software for NASArsquos satellites The US District Judge set sentencing for 5 February 20011030

8 November An eruption of solar-flare activity prompted NASA to order the ISS crew to take shelter in the Russian-built Zvezda module for 12 hours The federal Space Environment Center in Boulder Colorado rated the solar-flare event an S-4 making it the fourth-largest solar-radiation storm since 1976 NASA calculated that the ISS would travel through danger zones during the seven or eight orbits of a 12-hour period on 9 November Officials advised the crew to activate radiation-detection monitors in Zvezdarsquos living quarters and to remain in the aft section of the module during working hours except for two periods of 15 to 20 minutes during each 90-minute orbit when they could safely move around the cabin Michael J Golightly Chief of Space Science at Johnson Space Center (JSC) explained that the Zvezda module had a shield heavy enough to reduce the crewrsquos radiation exposure by 60 percent1031

9 November The Chandra X-ray Observatory team won a Current Achievement award from the Smithsonian Institutionrsquos National Air and Space Museum for ldquoits efforts in building placing in orbit and operating the most sophisticated astronomical observatory ever builtrdquo NASA had first proposed the Chandra in 1976 and had placed the telescope in orbit during a Space Shuttle mission in July 1999 Since its deployment Chandra had refined scientistsrsquo knowledge of the nature of galactic nuclei confirmed the existence of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies like Andromeda and the Milky Way captured images of an active starburst galaxy analyzed the compositions of supernovas and examined x-ray stars in the Orion Nebula The museum also honored engineer and aviator A Scott Crossfield with a Lifetime Achievement award Crossfield had begun his career in the 1950s as a research pilot for NASArsquos predecessor agency the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and had become the first pilot to exceed Mach 2 accomplishing this feat while flying the rocket-powered Douglas D-558-2 Crossfield had joined North American Aviation in 1955 and had worked on all aspects of the X-15 program In addition to his work on the X-15 Crossfield had developed the ground-control test methodology that became standard in the Mercury Gemini and Apollo space programs He had served as a division vice president at Eastern Airlines between 1967 and 1975 and after that as a technical advisor to the US House Science Subcommittee for Transportation Aviation and Weather until his retirement in 19931032

NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had captured an image of a lone neutron star traveling close to Earth one of several hundred million neutron stars that scientists believed to exist in the Milky Way Hubble scientists believed that at 200 light-years away this neutron star was the nearest to Earth No companion star affected its appearance allowing

1030 David Rosenzweig ldquoHacker Pleads Guilty to Invading JPL Stanford Computers Crime Mission Viego Man 20 Accepts Federal Plea Bargain He Had Gained Control of NASA Computers at Both Sitesrdquo Los Angeles Times 7 November 2000 1031 Frank D Roylance ldquoSpace Station Astronauts Take Shelter from Solar Radiation Crew Retreats to Module with more Shields During Unusually Severe Flaresrdquo Baltimore Sun (MD) 11 November 2000 1032 Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum ldquoChandra X-ray Observatory Team and Scott Crossfield Are Smithsonianrsquos National Air and Space Museum Trophy 2000 Winnersrdquo news release 13 November 2000 httpwwwnasmsiedueventspressroomreleaseDetailcfmreleaseID=88 (accessed 15 April 2008)

298


astronomers to more easily test and confirm stellar theories against its physical properties such as size brightness and true age Frederick M Walter of State University of New York at Stony Brook remarked that as the closest and brightest of the few known isolated neutron stars this star would be ldquothe easiest to study and is an excellent test bed for nuclear astrophysical theoriesrdquo1033

United Space Alliance finalized its investigation into the loose pin that had delayed the October launch of Space Shuttle Discovery reporting that the pin had come from the Vehicle Assembly Building Technicians had incorrectly installed the pin intended to secure a platform above part of the Shuttlersquos fuel tank During the Shuttlersquos transport to the launchpad on 8 September the 4shyinch (10-centimeter) metal pin had fallen 73 feet (22 meters) landing on a fuel line near one of the tankrsquos connections to the Shuttle After inspectors had found the pin on 10 October NASA officials had delayed Discoveryrsquos launch 24 hours so that technicians could remove the pin preventing damage during liftoff1034

10 November NASArsquos Stardust spacecraft entered safe mode after a stream of high-energy protons emanating from a solar flare hit the craft Stardust on a mission to return samples of a comet had been 130 million miles (210 million kilometers) from the Sun traveling at about 12000 miles (19000 kilometers) per hour when the solar flare erupted on 9 November The solar wind had brought the stream of protons into contact with the craft hours later in the middle of the night confirming that NASA engineers and scientists monitoring the situation had reason to feel concerned1035

13 November The NASA flight team for the Stardust spacecraft commanded it to leave safe mode after having successfully inspected the craftrsquos cameras Once back in normal operating mode the craft controlled its orientation in space perfectly1036

15 November Iridium Satellite LLC announced that the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York had approved its bid to purchase the operating assets property and intellectual property of Iridium LLC Iridium Satellite LLC would continue providing commercial satellite communication services to the US government1037

16 November The Russian government decided that it could no longer afford to maintain the Mir space station and would destroy it in February 2001 during a controlled descent The Russian government had previously decided to abandon Mir but had extended the space stationrsquos time in orbit after the private MirCorp based in the Netherlands had leased time on the station financing its operation

1033 NASA ldquoHubble Sees Lone Neutron Star Streaking Across Galaxyrdquo news release 00-176 9 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-176txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1034 Kelly Young ldquoPin Found on Shuttle from VABrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 11 November 2000 1035 Associated Press ldquoNASArsquos Stardust Spacecraft Survives Encounter with Solar Flarerdquo 21 November 2000 1036 Associated Press ldquoNASArsquos Stardust Spacecraftrdquo 1037 Iridium LLC ldquoStatement for Iridium Satellite LLCrdquo news release 15 November 2000

299


According to the Russian government a primary factor in its decision to end Mirrsquos orbit had been increasing skepticism over MirCorprsquos continued ability to finance Mir1038

17 November When the automatic docking system failed cosmonaut Yuri P Gidzenko used remote control to dock the first Progress cargo spacecraft arriving at the ISS The craft loaded with food boots and supplies had traveled smoothly to the ISS until within 300 feet (914 meters) of the station When the spacecraftrsquos automatic docking system failed to lock onto the space station Gidzenko took control guiding the craft to within 15 feet (46 meters) of the station Glaring sunlight and a fogged camera lens forced him to wait 40 minutes before he was able to complete the maneuver safely1039

20 November EarthWatch Inc a Colorado-based company developing a network of satellites to capture images of various regions of the Earth for commercial applications launched its QuickBird 1 craft from Plesetsk Cosmodrome aboard a Russian Cosmos-3M rocket However ground stations did not pick up its signals as planned US tracking data listed the craftrsquos orbit as ldquodecayedrdquo and a Russian Aerospace Agency spokesperson described the craft as ldquoeffectively lostrdquo EarthWatch had lost its first satellite Early Bird 1 four days after its 24 December 1997 launch because of a power-system problem1040

Arizona State University and JPL a division of California Institute of Technology announced the creation of the Arizona State University Planetary Imaging Facility and Advanced Training Institute (PIF-ATI) for the study of Mars Arizona State University and JPL would jointly fund the new facility which the two institutions intended for scientists and students to use PIF-ATI expanded on a facility originally planned in support of the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) scheduled to fly on the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft PIF-ATI would offer scientists and students outside the project greater access to instruments and data providing access for university students for students of the fifth through twelfth grades and for their teachers1041

21 November Two Earth-monitoring satellites launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket successfully reaching orbit NASA launched its Earth Observing I (EO-I) satellite part of its New Millenium Program to test several advanced technologies for possible use in future missions NASA planned to fly the US$193 million craft within 2 miles (3 kilometers) of the Landsat 7 satellite to collect the same images with the Landsat 7 images serving as the benchmark for the new imager aboard the EO-I The second satellite⎯the multinational SAC-C satellite a joint venture of NASA Argentina Brazil Denmark France

1038 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoRussia To Dump Mir Space Stationrdquo 16 November 2000 1039 Chicago Tribune ldquoCosmonaut Forced To Dock Cargo Ship by Remote Controlrdquo 19 November 2000 1040 Stephen Clark ldquoCommercial Eye-in-the-Sky Appears Lost in Launch Failurerdquo Spaceflight Now 21 November 2000 1041 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoNew Mars Research Facility To Involve Scientists Kidsrdquo news release 2000-115 20 November 2000 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases2000marsasuhtml (accessed 17 April 2008)

300


and Italy⎯carried 11 instruments for studying the Earthrsquos surface atmosphere and magnetic field including an instrument to observe the migration of the Franca whale1042

NASA selected six teams of scientists to participate in the first new mission of its Origins Program The teams would use the new Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) scheduled for launch in July 2002 to study the formation of galaxies stars and dust discs under the following projects ldquoGalaxy Birth and Evolutionrdquo ldquoBlack Holes and Galaxiesrdquo ldquoUnveiling Hidden Starsrdquo ldquoInside the Milky Wayrdquo ldquoFrom Gas to Starsrdquo and ldquoPlanet Formation When the Dust Settlesrdquo The teams selected from 28 proposals submitted by astronomers located around the world comprised the SIRTF Legacy Science Program1043

NASA selected 41 proposals of the 109 scientists had submitted to conduct research on Earth and in space using NASArsquos microgravity research facilities NASA intended the researchers to use the facilities to ldquoenhance understanding of physical biological and chemical processes associated with fundamental physicsrdquo NASA was funding the research with more than US$15 million in grants over a four-year period under the sponsorship of its Office of Biological and Physical Research Sixteen of the grants continued work already funded by NASA and twenty-four were for new research efforts Thirty-six grants funded ground-based research and the remaining five funded flight-definition projects1044

The US Department of Energy announced its selection of the Idaho Engineering and Environmental Laboratory to produce plutonium-238 the most radioactive form of plutonium NASA planned to use the isotope which generates electricity to ldquokeep things from freezing uprdquo to fuel a spacecraft on a mission to Pluto planned for after 20201045

22 November Gerald A Soffen Director of University Programs at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) died of a heart ailment Soffen had begun his career at NASA at JPL working on biological instrumentation development moving in the mid-1970s to Langley Research Center (LARC) where he worked on the Viking Mars Project as a project scientist He became LARCrsquos chief environmental scientist before transferring to GSFC in 1983 At Goddard Soffen had helped develop to NASArsquos astrobiology program and to establish NASArsquos Astrobiology Institute In 1978 NASA had appointed him Life Sciences Director at NASA Headquarters and since its establishment in 1990 he had served as Director of the University Programs Office GSFC Director Alphonse V Diaz remarked that science and students were Soffenrsquos two loves and that ldquothe Agency and the nation will continue to benefit enormously from the talented young people he has brought into the scientific communityrdquo1046

1042 Associated Press ldquoTwo Earth-Monitoring Satellitesrdquo 21 November 2000 1043 NASA ldquoThe Skyrsquos the Limit Science Teams Chose for Space Observatoryrdquo news release 00-184 21 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-184txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1044 NASA ldquoNASA Announces Research Grants in Fundamental Physicsrdquo news release 00-183 21 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-183txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1045 Associated Press ldquoA Type of Plutoniumrdquo 22 November 2000 1046 NASA ldquoNASA Astrobiology Architect Dr Gerald Soffen Diesrdquo news release 00-186 24 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-186txt (accessed 7 April 2008) Washington Post ldquoGerald Alan Soffen NASA Officialrdquo 27 November 2000

301


The government of the Peoplersquos Republic of China released a document outlining its policy regarding its future human spaceflight program and satellite-launch industries The document which provided the outside world with information about Chinarsquos top-secret space program described the Chinese space industry as ldquoan integral part of the statersquos comprehensive development strategyrdquo and stated ldquoexploration and utilization of outer space should be for peaceful purposes and benefit the whole of mankindrdquo The paper provided details of Chinarsquos satellite program stating that as of October 2000 China had developed and launched 47 satellites with a success rate of over 90 percent China had four satellite series in operation the Dongfanghong telecommunications series the Fengyun meteorological series the Shijian research and technology series and the Ziyuan Earth-observation series which had recently launched its first spacecraft The paper also outlined Chinarsquos efforts toward international cooperation notably Chinarsquos signing of an agreement with a dozen countries including the United States Russia Japan and several European countries allowing for scientific exchange and joint development of spacecraft components as well as for commercial launch services To date China had launched 27 foreign-made satellites using its Long March series of rockets1047

24 November NASA Director of Media Services Brian D Welch died after suffering a heart attack Welch who had led many of NASArsquos public outreach efforts was responsible for its news operations for NASA Television and for NASArsquos Internet efforts Welch had begun his career as a cooperative-education student of public affairs at LARC in 1979 In 1981 he had become editor of Space News Roundup the newspaper of NASArsquos JSC Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Welch had worked as a public affairs mission commentator Deputy News Chief at Mission Control Center Manager of JSCrsquos Mission Commentary Team and Newsroom Manager during Shuttle flights NASA had appointed Welch as Chief of News and Information in 1994 and he had become Director of Media Services in 1998 Administrator Daniel S Goldin spoke of how Welchrsquos sudden death had stunned NASA saying that Welchrsquos ldquolove and enthusiasm for spaceflight and explorationrdquo was ldquoinfectiousrdquo and describing Welchrsquos passionate approach to his work as the true embodiment of ldquothe spirit of this agencyrdquo1048

28 November NASA announced the selection of a science team for the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) scheduled for launch in 2009 The team consisted of 10 principal investigators leading key science teams and 5 mission specialists NASA intended SIM part of its Origins Program to search for Earth-sized planets around other stars to measure precisely the locations and distances of stars throughout the Milky Way Galaxy and to study other celestial objects helping to answer fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of the galaxy NASA planned to place the SIM spacecraft in an Earth-trailing orbit around the Sun enabling the craftrsquos multiple telescopes to gather the Sunrsquos light and producing information normally only obtained with much larger telescopes NASA considered identification of potential observing targets for the Terrestrial Planet Finder a critical part of SIMrsquos mission NASA planned the Terrestrial Planet Finder to

1047 Stephen Clark ldquoChina Temporarily Lifts Its Veil on Its Secret Space Programrdquo Spaceflight Now 24 November 2000 1048 NASA ldquoBrian Welch NASA Director of Media Services Diesrdquo news release 00-187 27 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-187txt (accessed 7 April 2008)

302


capture images of planetary systems around other stars and to search for chemical signatures suggesting the possibility of life1049

The National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Integrated Program Office (IPO) selected Raytheon Company to provide imaging-sensor instruments for the new NPOESS craft which would replace the US Department of Commercersquos Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) and the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites Under a contract valued at US$1528 million Raytheon would design develop and test the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument and develop the algorithms to produce environmental data records from VIIRS data1050

Lockheed Martin and NASA entered into a consolidated space operations contract (CSOC) allowing NASA to use the services of two commercial satellite ground-tracking stations Under CSOC NASA customers would have access on a per-pass basis to additional stations on Svalbard Island in Norway owned by Kongsberg Spacetec-Lockheed Martin Space Data Services and in Poker Flat Alaska owned by DataLynx Both tracking stations had recently completed CSOC operational-readiness reviews in preparation for inclusion in Lockheed Martinrsquos catalog of services available to NASA programs1051

30 November NASA announced that new technology recently tested at Ames Research Center (ARC) had converted sounds emanating from landing-gear wind noise into color images on computer screens ldquoenabling engineers to pinpoint loud and preventable aircraft flight noise more easily than in the pastrdquo The imposition of nighttime curfews on noisy takeoffs and landings had prompted aircraft manufacturers to develop quieter planes Paul T Soderman leader of the ARC aeroacoustics group explained that the ability to visualize the cause of wind noise coming from landing gear enables engineers to analyze the problem so that they can find ways to reduce significantly noise The engineers had created the sound images using a computer linked to a quarter-scale landing-gear model and an array of 70 microphones inside the wall of a wind tunnel The researchers had then removed various combinations of landing-gear parts in the wind tunnel resulting in significant noise reduction1052

Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida on Mission STS-97 carrying to the ISS Commander Brent W Jett Jr Pilot Michael J Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joseph R Tanner Marc Garneau and Carlos I Noriega The purpose of STS-97 also known as ISS Assembly Flight 4A was to connect solar arrays to prepare a docking port for the US-made Destiny module to install Floating Potential Probes to install

1049 NASA ldquoScience Team Chosen for Space Interferometry Missionrdquo news release 00-178 28 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-178txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1050 Associated Press ldquoRaytheon Awarded $1528 Million Contract for Meteorological Satellite Imaging Sensorrdquo 28 November 2000 1051 ldquoLockheed Martin Adds Two Commercial Stations to CSOC Capabilityrdquo Aerospace Daily 29 November 2000 1052 NASA ldquoNASA Technology Allows Engineers to See Airframe Noiserdquo news release 00-189 30 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-189txt (accessed 7 April 2008)

303


camera cable outside the Unity module and to transfer supplies refuse and equipment between the ISS and the Shuttle1053

DECEMBER 2000

1 December Raymond Toricelli of New Rochelle New York pled guilty to breaking into two NASA computers in 1998 to steal user names and passwords to gain access to other systems The two computers which helped launch robotic spacecraft were at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena California Toricelli had also set up a chat room to direct people to a pornography site which paid him 18 cents per referral broken into a San Jose University computer system to gain access to other networks and stolen more than 15 credit card numbers online He stated that he had never intended to damage the computers he illegally entered Prosecutors planned to seek a prison term of 8 to 14 months at Toricellirsquos sentencing on 7 March 2001 The maximum penalty for his crime was 27 years in prison and a US$950000 fine1054

Space Shuttle Endeavour docked successfully with the International Space Station (ISS) the first Shuttle docking at an inhabited ISS William M Shepherd Commander of the ISS noted the festive mood at the space station even though the two crews would not meet in person until later in the mission Soon after Endeavour docked Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau used the Shuttlersquos robotic arm to lift the 49-foot-long (15-meter-long) tower containing the solar array out of the cargo bay where it would remain suspended 10 feet (3 meters) above the Shuttle while the crew slept1055

3 December Endeavour astronauts attempted to deploy the new solar array at the ISS but only one of the two panels unfurled as planned Joseph R Tanner and Carlos I Noriega conducted a spacewalk to assist in attaching a 17-ton (15400-kilogram or 154-tonne) power assembly while Marc Garneau maneuvered the Shuttlersquos robotic arm from inside Endeavour The spacewalkers were unable to open the latches on the storage boxes containing the folded solar panels delaying their attempts to unfurl the array They began to unfurl the first panel 1 hour behind schedule but although it reached its full length in 14 minutes the panel did not appear to have the correct tension NASA officials decided to delay expanding the second panel for a full day to give them time to determine the cause of the inadequate tension of the first panel The ISS crew did not witness the deployment of the solar array because the Shuttle crew carried out their work during the ISS crewrsquos sleep period1056

4 December Members of the astronaut crew who had flown aboard NASArsquos historic 100th Space Shuttle flight Mission STS-92 visited NASArsquos Michoud Assembly Facility to present Silver Snoopy

1053 NASA ldquoNASA Mission Archives STS-97 International Space Station Assembly Flight 4Ardquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissions archivessts-97html (accessed 30 October 2008) 1054 Chicago Tribune ldquo20-Year-Old Pleads Guilty to Hacking into NASA Computersrdquo 3 December 2000 1055 Steven Siceloff ldquoEndeavour Docks at Station Astronauts To Attach Arrays Todayrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 3 December 2000 1056 Warren E Leary ldquoSpace Station Gets Its Wings but Only One Is Deployedrdquo New York Times 4 December 2000

304


awards ldquothe highest accolade that the astronauts corps gives to people who build flight hardwarerdquo to the Lockheed Martin employees who had built the Shuttlersquos super-lightweight tank and liquid-oxygen tank NASA had named the Silver Snoopy award after the Peanuts character the dog that imagined he was a fighter pilot1057

Space Shuttle Endeavour Commander Brent W Jett Jr successfully unfurled the second panel of the solar array (colloquially referred to as a solar wing) that the crew had deployed on the ISS on 3 December Jett used computer commands to unfold the panel a few feet at a time a process that took nearly 2 hours No problems occurred until the crew had extended the panel almost fully when it became clear that a panel on each blanket was stuck to a neighboring section Endeavourrsquos crew turned the Shuttle to allow the Sun to warm the blankets and fired thrusters to shake the array snapping the wing into place The panel began generating electricity before it reached its full 115 feet (35 meters) To NASArsquos relief the panel was stretched tight Once the crew had completed the process Commander Jett radioed to Mission Control that they had two tensioned blankets and Mission Control replied ldquoGreat work gentlemen We think yoursquove earned your solar wingsrdquo1058

5 December NASA made data from its Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) available to the public ASTER a general-purpose imaging instrument featuring 14 spectral bands extremely high spatial resolution and stereo-imaging capabilities had launched aboard NASArsquos Terra satellite in December 1999 One of ASTERrsquos primary goals was ldquoto acquire a one-time cloud-free image of the entire land surface of Earthrdquo intended as a baseline image for monitoring environmental change1059

Endeavour astronauts Joseph R Tanner and Carlos I Noriega worked outside the ISS to connect power lines correcting an electrical shortage that had restricted the stationrsquos first crew to two of three habitable modules The two astronauts also inspected the first solar panel that they had unfurled to determine whether the crew could correct its tension Wearing a small TV camera on his helmet Noriega beamed down to Mission Control images of the loose tension cables on the arrayrsquos right wing The cables had slipped off their pulleys during the solar panelrsquos deployment on 3 December Tanner remarked that an astronaut could place one tension cable back on its pulley without too much trouble but that the other cable would require more work Mission Control instructed the spacewalkers to try to fix the cables on their third and final spacewalk the following day1060

7 December NASA and the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to form a partnership to use science and space technology to

1057 New Orleans Time-Picayune ldquoAstronauts Thank Lockheed Workers Company Makes Shuttle Componentsrdquo 17 December 2000 1058 Associated Press ldquoAstronaut Manages To Spread Stationrsquos 2nd Wingrdquo USA Today 5 April 2000 Warren E Leary ldquoAstronauts Finnish Adding Solar Wing to Stationrdquo New York Times 5 December 2000 1059 NASA ldquoTerra Satellitersquos ASTER Data Now Available to the Publicrdquo news release 2000-124 5 December 2000 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases2000terrahtml (accessed 7 April 2008) 1060 Chicago Tribune ldquoSpace Station Gets an Electrical Boost from Solar Wingsrdquo 6 December 2000 Associated Press ldquoLive from Space lsquoCarlos Camrsquordquo Newsday (Long Island NY) 6 December 2000

305


prevent natural disasters The agreement called upon NASA and FEMA to apply remote-sensing research images to emergency-management issues creating accurate and informative maps of flood plains and wildfires as well as other types of maps intended to help state and local communities respond to and mitigate natural disasters The partnership affiliated with Project Impact Building Disaster Resistant Communities would use NASArsquos Earth Science Enterprise as ldquopart of an aggressive new strategy devoted to significantly increasing the application of NASA remote sensing data information science and technologies to societal needsrdquo1061

Astronauts Joseph R Tanner and Carlos I Noriega were able to tighten the slack solar panel on the ISS within minutes using only a hook to place two tension cables back on their pulleys Although the wing functioned well even though it was slack if the astronauts had not adjusted its tension the solar cells might have torn or the support rods might have bent or broken After repairing the wing the two astronauts installed a camera cable and a static-electricity monitor on the outside of the ISS The monitor would help NASA learn how to protect spacewalking astronauts from electrical shocks1062

8 December Michael C Malin and Kenneth S Edgett of Malin Space Science Systems published research in the journal Science based on images from NASArsquos Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft The two researchers had found that the images showed massive sedimentary deposits on Mars suggesting that the planet ldquowas once a water-rich land of lakesrdquo Malin described the images as revealing ldquohundreds and hundreds of identically thick layersrdquo features that were ldquoalmost impossible to have without waterrdquo J William Schopf head of the Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life at the University of California at Los Angeles commented that the images provided the ldquostrongest evidence yet for what appear to be sedimentary units on Marsrdquo supporting the theory that billions of years ago Mars had been wetter warmer and possibly hospitable to life1063

Hatches between the ISS and Space Shuttle Endeavour opened for the first time and the three members of the space station crew who had been living aboard the ISS for five weeks received their first visitors ISS Commander William M Shepherd commended Endeavourrsquos crew for their installation of the giant solar array on the space station The two crews spent their day together transferring supplies such as food water mail and gifts to the space station and removing trash damaged items and unneeded items for return to Earth1064

11 December

1061 NASA ldquoNASA FEMA Partner To Use Science and Space Technology for Disaster Preventionrdquo news release 00-192 7 December 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-192txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1062 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoAstronauts Breeze Through Wing Repair lsquoAll Finishedrsquordquo 7 December 2000 1063 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoEvidence of Martian Land of Lakes Discoveredrdquo news release 2000-123 4 December 2000 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases2000marslakeshtml (accessed 7 April 2008) Associated Press ldquoSatellite Photos Indicate Mars Was Water Plentifulrdquo Washington Times 5 December 2000 Michael C Malin and Kenneth S Edget ldquoSedimentary Rocks of Early Marsrdquo Science 290 no 5498 (8 December 2000) 1927ndash1937 1064 Reuters ldquoHatch Is Opened Endeavour Space Station Crews Become Onerdquo Chicago Tribune 9 December 2000 Los Angeles Times ldquoEndeavourrsquos Crew Visits Space Stationrdquo 9 December 2000 Warren E Leary ldquoSpace Station Crew Greets First Visitorsrdquo New York Times 9 December 2000

306


Space Shuttle Endeavour landed at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida after completing the 11-day Mission STS-97 at the ISS where the crew had installed and deployed the stationrsquos new solar array Shortly before touchdown the ISS sailed above KSC a ldquoreminder of the pressurerdquo on NASA to support more flights to the ISS as the stationrsquos assembly accelerated Shuttle Program Manager Ronald D Dittemore remarked that the successful mission of Endeavour to the ISS was ldquoa good way to end this year⎯a very successful five missionsrdquo1065

A team of three high school students from the North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics in Durham won first place in the Siemens-Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition The team won for discovering the first evidence of a neutron star in the nearby supernova remnant IC443 using data from NASArsquos Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Science Foundationrsquos Very Large Array (VLA) Observatory The students had located a point-like source of x-rays embedded in a supernova and had determined that the central object was most likely a pulsar a young and rapidly rotating neutron star Bryan M Gaensler a pulsar expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who had reviewed the teamrsquos paper remarked that the students had produced ldquoa really solid scientific findingrdquo1066

12 December The Netherlands-based MirCorp the company originally established to keep the Mir space station in orbit for commercial purposes announced that following a board meeting during the previous week the company had decided to ldquoretool the company to work with other Russian space equipmentrdquo The company planned to develop a new orbiter capable of docking with the ISS to market existing space technologies such as cargo spacecraft and to explore commercial projects involving access to a future Russian module on the ISS1067

16 December Ganymede the largest moon in Jupiterrsquos solar system joined the planet Mars and Jovian moons Europa and Callisto as the only known bodies showing strong evidence of the presence of liquid water beneath their surfaces During the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union Margaret G Kivelson a planetary scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles announced that NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft had found evidence of a vast sea of liquid beneath the surface of Jupiterrsquos moon Ganymede Using data collected from Galileorsquos magnetometer during May 2000 and earlier Kivelsonrsquos team had measured the moonrsquos magnetic field The magnetometer had registered readings ldquobest explained by a thick layer of water⎯about as salty as Earthrsquos oceans⎯hidden about 120 miles [190 kilometers] beneathrdquo the moonrsquos surface Thomas B McCord a geophysicist at the University of Hawaii who also presented research at the conference had used Galileorsquos Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer to discover that portions of Ganymede appeared ldquoto have types of salt minerals that would have been left behind by exposure of salty water near or onto the surfacerdquo Gene D McDonald an astrobiologist at JPL which manages the Galileo Mission remarked that Ganymede might be a more promising destination than Europa for robotic spacecraft searching for life Ganymede farther from Jupiter

1065 William Harwood ldquoEndeavour Returns from Station Workrdquo Washington Post 12 December 2000 1066 NASA ldquoStudents Using NASA and NSF Data Make Stellar Discovery Win Science Team Competitionrdquo news release 00-195 11 December 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-195txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1067 Andrew Kramer for Associated Press ldquoRussian Company To Build Spacecraft To Carry Customersrdquo 13 December 2000

307


than Europa has better protection than Europa from Jupiterrsquos intense and deadly radiation Therefore biomarker compounds emerging on the surface of Ganymede would survive longer there than on the other Jovian moons as would any spacecraft orbiting or landing on Ganymede1068

19 December NASA suspended all of Cassinirsquos observations of Jupiter that required the spacecraft to point⎯to take magnetic-field measurements⎯in order to capture images after the craft developed a problem with a maneuvering system NASA permitted Cassini to continue making observations that did not requiring pointing On 17 December Cassinirsquos No 2 reaction wheel had begun to require extra force to turn prompting the craft to switch from electrical power to a hydrazine-thrusting system which Cassini needed to conserve for use in its primary Saturn mission Cassini Program Manager Robert T Mitchell remarked that if tests of the maneuvering system were favorable the craft could begin its observations again in a week to 10 days1069

20 December NASArsquos Office of Earth Sciences selected Gencorp Aerojet to build the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) a spaceborne instrument for measuring microwave energy emitted and scattered by the atmosphere NASA intended the ATMS to replace instruments currently used on polar-orbiting weather satellites NASA planned for the ATMS working alongside an infrared sounder instrument to produce daily global atmospheric temperature humidity and pressure profiles essential for accurate weather forecasting and long-term climate research Associate Administrator for NASArsquos Office of Earth Science Enterprise Ghassem R Asrar remarked that the advanced technology would improve the accuracy of weather forecasting from the current three-to-five day forecast span to seven-to-ten day predictions NASA planned to fly the first unit as part of the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project Bridge mission intended to ensure continuity of research-quality data through the bridging of sounding data between NASArsquos Earth Observing System research missions and future NPOESS operational missions Goddard Space Flight Center would provide oversight of the contract worth US$2066 million1070

NASA announced it had begun searching worldwide for proposals from principal investigators and institutions to develop its first mission to Pluto In the announcement of opportunity NASA solicited proposals for a complete mission to the Pluto-Charon system and the Kuiper Belt requiring that submitted proposals include an expendable launch vehicle and spacecraft its bus and systems and the scientific instrumentation package Although NASA placed no restrictions on the missionrsquos launch date its stated goal was to reach Pluto by 2015 at a cost of no more than US$500 million in FY 2000 dollars This was the first time that the Office of Space Science had solicited proposals for a mission to an outer planet on a competitive basis NASA had chosen this

1068 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoSolar Systemrsquos Largest Moon Likely Has a Hidden Oceanrdquo news release 2000-130 16 December 2000 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases2000aguganymederounduphtml (accessed 7 April 2008) Kathy Sawyer ldquoEvidence of Liquid Found on Jupiterrsquos Ganymede Largest Moon May Be a Place To Look for Liferdquo Washington Post 17 December 2000 1069 Los Angeles Times ldquoNASA Halts Spacecraftrsquos Observation of Jupiterrdquo 21 December 2000 Associated Press ldquoNASA Cassini Spacecraft Trouble Free Approaching Jupiterrdquo 28 December 2000 1070 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Firm To Build Next Generation Weather Instrumentrdquo news release C00-q 20 December 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-qtxt (accessed 7 April 2008)

308


approach to elicit ldquocreative ideas from innovative thinkersrdquo capable of developing highly focused missions rapidly and at a relatively low cost NASA made the announcement after it had issued a stop order on the PlutoKuiper Express (PKE) mission on 12 September because of the PKE missionrsquos unacceptably high increases in cost NASA also appointed Colleen Hartman the Deputy Director of the Research Division of the Office of Space Science as the new Outer Planets Program Director to act as the point of contact at NASA Headquarters for budget content and policy direction1071

The Huygens Communications Link Enquiry Board released its findings recommendations and conclusions after conducting interviews and hearings with the European Space Agency (ESA) NASA and industry project staff and experts The Board had reviewed the unexplained anomalies in the communication subsystem of the Huygens Probe discovered during a Probe Relay Link Test in February 2000 The ESA Director General had formed an independent inquiry board to assess the current status of the Huygens communication link to recommend means of safeguarding the mission objectives and guaranteeing full scientific data return and to recommend ways to prevent similar problems in future projects The Board had found that the entire project structure had led to the anomaly outlining the specific problems in its report The Board also made six recommendations and provided 10 recovery options The Boardrsquos key recommendation was that in the future when a mission carries new hardware the mission plan should be sufficiently flexible to allow for changes from ground command1072

21 December NASArsquos JPL announced that the Cassini spacecraft after successfully undergoing a series of tests was resuming the use of its electrically powered reaction wheels to control its orientation Although mission scientists were uncertain of the cause of the spacecraftrsquos switch to a different maneuvering system they suggested that a small piece of material perhaps from the motorrsquos magnets might have lodged in an area where it caused friction Because the scientists were unable actually to detect any such material they speculated further that either centrifugal force had subsequently forced the material out or the motor had ground it up Scientists also suggested that reduced lubrication in the bearings during prolonged operation at reduced speeds might have caused the problem and that perhaps the increased motor speeds used during the tests had restored the lubrication1073

26 December Ground controllers in Russia restored communication with Mir after they had been unable to contact the uninhabited space station for 24 hours Spokesperson for Russian Mission Control Valery Lyndin allayed fears that Mir would crash to Earth shortly announcing that Russia had received no indication that the space station was losing pressure Mission Control Chief Vladimir A Solovyov explained that the stationrsquos batteries had lost power and no longer had sufficient energy to communicate with ground controllers Once ground controllers had identified the

1071 NASA ldquoNASA Seeks Proposals for Pluto Mission Plans To Restructure Outer Planet Programrdquo news release 00-201 20 December 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-201txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1072 Huygens Communications Link Enquiry Board ldquoFindings Recommendations and Conclusionsrdquo 20 December 2000 httpklabsorgrichcontentReportsFailure_ReportsESA_Cassinihuygens_enquiry_boardPDF (accessed 21 April 2008) 1073 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoResuming Use of Reaction Wheelsrdquo news release 21 December 2000 httpsaturnjplnasagovnewspress-release-detailscfmnewsID=6 (accessed 21 April 2008)

309


problem they had switched off specific systems to direct more energy to ground communications Although Mirrsquos solar panels were recharging the batteries the cause of the power shortage remained unclear1074

27 December Russian Space Agency Director General Yuri N Koptev reiterated Russiarsquos commitment to the international community stating that Russia definitely would bring Mir safely down in February 2001 Koptev ldquoangrily dismissed Communist demands to keep the nearly 15-year-old station in orbitrdquo referring to the 20-hour loss of contact earlier in the week as a ldquofinal warning that time was uprdquo and an indicator of the level of the stationrsquos wear and tear Communist lawmakers including cosmonaut Svetlana Y Savitskaya who called the move a concession to NASA had criticized the governmentrsquos decision to destroy the space station However Koptev had countered the criticism saying that if Mir spun out of control the Russian president and government would have to explain to the world where the station would fall and how much damage it would cause1075

28 December Cassini Program Manager Robert T Mitchell at NASArsquos JPL announced the resumption of the spacecraftrsquos observations Cassini had operated without any problems since scientists had reactivated its reaction-wheel system on 21 December1076

1074 Washington Times ldquoContact with Mir Restored After Loss of Battery Power Mission Control Allays Fears of Crashrdquo 27 December 2000 1075 Vladimir Iachenkov for Associated Press ldquoSpace Officials Say Mir Back Under Control Will Be Dumped in Februaryrdquo 27 December 2000 1076 Associated Press ldquoNASA Cassini Spacecraft Trouble Free Approaching Jupiterrdquo 28 December 2000 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoCassini Passes Through Asteroid Beltrdquo news release 28 December 2000 httpsaturnjplnasagovnewspress-release-detailscfmnewsID=4 (accessed 21 April 2008)

310


APPENDIX A

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

2MASS Two-Micron All Sky Survey

ACE Advanced Composition Explorer ACRIM Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor ACRP Advanced Concepts Research Projects ADEOS Advanced Earth Observing Satellite AIRSAR Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar AMM Auroral Multiscale MIDEX Mission AMS Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer ARC Ames Research Center ARGOS Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite ASCA Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics ASCE Advanced Solar Coronal Explorer ASTER Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer ATIDS Airport Traffic Identification System ATMS Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder AXAF Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility

BA Beal Aerospace Technologies Inc Baracuda Boldly Advanced and Refined Aircraft Concept Under Development

(for BESS) BATSE Burst and Transient Source Experiment BeppoSAX Italian-Dutch satellite named in honor of physicist Giuseppe Occhialini

with acronym SAX for ldquoSatellite per Astronomia Xrdquo Italian for ldquoX-ray Astronomy Satelliterdquo

BESS Balloon Borne Experiment with a Superconducting Solenoidal Magnet BOOMERANG Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and

Geophysics BRSP Brown and Root Services and Pioneer Contract Services

CAMEX-3 Third Convection and Moisture Experiment CASST Commercial Aviation Safety Strategy Team CBERS China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite CERES Clouds and the Earthrsquos Radiant Energy System CIA Central Intelligence Agency CME coronal mass ejection COBE Cosmic Background Explorer CRV crew return vehicle CSA Canadian Space Agency CSOC consolidated space operations contract

311



DARTS Dynamics Algorithms for Real-Time Simulation DFRC Dryden Flight Research Center DOD US Department of Defense DF-31 Dong Feng-31 DMSP Defense Meteorological Satellite Program DROMS Dynamic Runway Occupancy Measurement Systems DTAM Digital Tectonic Activity Map

EDT Eastern Daylight Time EO Earth Observing EOS Earth Observing Satellite ESA European Space Agency ESO European Southern Observatory ESR emergency Sun reacquisition mode EST Eastern Standard Time ETR Experimental Test Range Eutelsat European Telecommunications Satellite Organization EXPRESS EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to the Space Station

FAA Federal Aviation Administration FAME Full-Sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer FAST Fast Auroral Snapshot FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation FFC FutureFlight Central FGB Functional Cargo Block (known by its Russian abbreviation) FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency FUSE Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explore FVI Fisk Ventures Inc

GAO US General Accounting Office GCN Gamma Ray Burst Coordinates Network GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite GPS Global Positioning Satellite GRB gamma-ray bursts GRC Glenn Research Center GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center

HAL5 Huntsville Alabama L5 Society HEDS Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise HESSI High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager HDF-S Hubble Deep Field South HETE High Energy Transient Explorer Mission HST Hubble Space Telescope

312



ICBM intercontinental ballistic missile ILS International Launch Services ISCCP International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project ISS International Space Station

JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory JSC Johnson Space Center

KITSAT Korea Institute of Technology satellite KSC Kennedy Space Center

LAGEOS Laser Geodynamics Satellite LARC Langley Research Center LASCO Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph LED light-emitting diodes LERC Lewis Research Center LFBB Liquid Fly Back Booster LMCSS Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems LoFLYTE Low Observable Flight Test Experiment LRIP low-rate initial production

maglev magnetic levitation MIDEX Medium-Class Explorer MIRACL Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser MISR Multi-Angle Imaging Spectroradiometer MOD Masters of Downloading MODIS Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer MOLA Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter MOPITT Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere MSFC Marshall Space Flight Center MSL Microgravity Science Laboratory

NACA National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASDA National Space Development Agency of Japan NEAR Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous NGI Next Generation Internet NGSS Next Generation Sky Survey NGST Next Generation Space Telescope NICMOS Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer NIMS Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NPOESS National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environment Satellite System NPP NPOESS Preparatory Project

313



NPR National Partnership for Reinventing Government NRC National Research Council NRO National Reconnaissance Office NSTAR NASA Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Application Readiness

OAST Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology OBPR Office of Biological and Physical Research OLSMA Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications OMB Office of Management and Budget

PDRS probe data relay subsystem PETI-5 Phenylethynyl Terminated Imide Oligomers fifth composition PIF-ATI Planetary Imaging Facility and Advanced Training Institute PKE PlutoKuiper Express POES Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite POLARIS Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in the Arctic Region in Summer PSA Personal Satellite Assistant PSLV Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PST Pacific Standard Time

QuikSCAT Quick Scatterometer

RESTORE Reconfigurable Control for Tailless Fighter Aircraft RLV reusable launch vehicle ROSAT Roumlntgensatellit ROTSE Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment RSIS RS Information Services RTG Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator RXTE Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer

SAC Scientific Applications Satellite SAFARI Southern African Regional Science Initiative SAFER Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue SCP Spacecraft Control Processor SELVS Small Expendable Launch Vehicle Services SHARP Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program SIM Space Interferometry Mission SIR-C Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C SIR-CX-SAR Spaceborne Imaging Radar-CX-band Synthetic Aperture Radar SIRTF Space Infrared Telescope Facility SMEX Small Explorer SOHO Solar and Heliospheric Observatory SRB solid rocket booster STS Space Transportation System

314



SUNSAT Stellenbosch University South Africa satellite SWAS Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite

TDRS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite THEMIS Thermal Emission Imaging System THUNDER Thin-Layer Composite-Unimorph Piezoelectric Driver and Sensor TIROS Advanced Television Infrared Observation Satellite TOMS Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer TOMS-EP Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe TRACE Transition Region and Coronal Explorer TRACE-A Transport and Chemistry near the Equator of the Atlantic TRMM Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission TSS tethered satellite system

USA United Space Alliance UV ultraviolet VIIRS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite VLA Very Large Array VLBI Very Long Baseline Interferometry VLT Very Large Telescope

WIRE Wide-Field Infrared Explorer

XMM X-ray Multi-Mirror scientific satellite XTE X-ray Timing Explorer

Y2K Year 2000

315


APPENDIX B

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson J D W L Sjogren and G Schubert ldquoGalileo Gravity Results and the Internal Structure of Lordquo Science 272 no 5262 (3 May 1996) 709minus712

Anselmo Joseph C ldquoNASA Funds Research for Shuttle Successorrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 152 no 7 (14 February 2000) 11minus12

Basri Gibor Subjanjoy Mohanty France Allard Peter H Hauschildt Xavier Delfosse Eduardo L Martin Theirry Forveille and Bertrand Goldman ldquoAn Effective Temperature Scale for Late-M and L Dwarfs From Resonance Absorption Lines of Cs I and Rb Irdquo Astrophysical Journal Letters 538 no 1 (20 July 2000) 363minus385

Berenji H R Ping-Wei Chang and S R Swanson ldquoRefining the Shuttle Training Aircraft Controllerrdquo Fuzzy Systems 1997 Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE International Conference 2 (1minus5 July 1997) 677minus682

Carlson R W M S Anderson R E Johnson W D Smythe A R Hendrix C A Barth L A Soderblom G B Hansen T B McCord J B Dalton R N Clark J H Shirley A C Ocampo and D L Matson ldquoHydrogen Peroxide on the Surface of Europardquo Science 283 no 5410 (26 March 1999) 2062ndash2064

Carlson R W R E Johnson and M S Anderson ldquoSulfuric Acid on Europa and the Radiolytic Sulfur Cyclerdquo Science 286 no 5437 (1 October 1999) 97ndash99

Chakrabarty Deepto and Edward H Morgan ldquoThe Two-Hour Orbit of a Binary Millisecond X-ray Pulsarrdquo Nature 394 no 6691 (23 July 1998) 346ndash348

Corliss William R ldquoDevelopment of the First Sounding Rocketsrdquo Chapter 4 in NASA Sounding Rockets 1958ndash1968 A Historical Summary Washington DC NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office 1971

Covault Craig ldquoShuttleSpartan Verdict Sparks Station Concernsrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 148 no 16 (20 April 1998) 26

Covault Craig and Pierre Sparaco ldquoFrench Astronaut Joins RussianUS Mir Crewrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 145 no 9 (26 August 1996) 69minus70

Dornheim Michael A ldquoPathfinder Aircraft Hits 71500 Ftrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 147 no 3 (21 July 1997) 40minus42

Dornheim Michael A ldquoPathfinder Surpasses Propeller Altitude Recordrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 146 no 25 (16 June 1997) 53

317


Dornheim Michael A ldquoUnexpected Jovian Radiation Hits Galileordquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 151 no 8 (23 August 1999) 42

Farquhar James Mark H Thiemens and Teresa Jackson ldquoAtmosphere-Surface Interactions on Mars Δ17Ο Measurements of Carbonate from ALH84001rdquo Science 280 no 5369 (5 June 1998) 1580

Furness Tim ldquoNew Evidence Reveals Fire on Doomed Challengerrsquos Boosterrdquo Flight International 5minus11 February 1997

Glanz James ldquoChain of Errors Hurled Probe into Spinrdquo Science 281 no 5376 (24 July 1998) 499

Gloeckler G J Giess N A Schwadron L A Fisk T H Zurbuchen F M Ipavich R von Steiger H Balsiger and B Wilken ldquoInterception of Comet Hyakutakersquos Ion Tail at a Distance of 500 Million Kilometersrdquo Nature 404 no 6778 (6 April 2000) 576minus579

Gurnett D A W S Kurth A Roux S J Bolton and C F Kennel ldquoEvidence for Magnetosphere at Ganymede from Plasmawave Observations by the Galileo Spacecraftrdquo Nature 384 no 6609 (12 December 1996) 535minus538

Hartmann William Michael Malin Alfred McEwen Michael Carr Larry Soderblom Peter Thomas Ed Danielson Phillip James and Joseph Veverka ldquoEvidence for Recent Volcanism on Mars from Crater Countsrdquo Nature 397 no 6720 (18 February 1999) 586

Hassler Donald Ingolf E Dammasch Philippe Lemaire Pal Brekke Werner Curdt Helen E Mason Jean-Claude Vial and Klaus Wilhelm ldquoSolar Wind Outflow and the Chromospheric Magnetic Networkrdquo Science 283 no 5403 (5 February 1999) 810

Head James W III Harald Hiesinger Mikhail A Ivanov Mikhail A Kreslavsky Stephen Pratt and Bradley J Thomson ldquoPossible Ancient Oceans on Mars Evidence from Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter Datardquo Science 286 no 5447 (10 December 1999) 2134ndash2137

Herman J R P Bhartia J Ziemke Z Ahmad and D Larko ldquoUV-B Increases (1979minus1992) from Decreases in Total Ozonerdquo Geophysical Research Letters 23 no 16 (1996) 2117minus2120

Huygens Communications Link Enquiry Board ldquoFindings Recommendations and Conclusionsrdquo Report 20 December 2000 1ndash13 httpklabsorgrichcontentReports Failure_ReportsESA_Cassinihuygens_enquiry_boardPDF (accessed 21 April 2008)

Jet Magazine ldquoNavy Captain Winston Scott Becomes Second Black To Walk in Spacerdquo 5 February 1996 24

318


Jones Geraint H Andre Balogh and Timothy S Horbury ldquoIdentification of Comet Hyakutakersquos Extremely Long Ion Tail from Magnetic Field Signaturesrdquo Nature 404 no 6778 (6 April 2000) 574minus577

Khurana K K D J Stevenson G Schubert C T Russell R J Walker and C Polanskey ldquoInduced Magnetic Fields as Evidence for Subsurface Oceans in Europa and Callistordquo Nature 395 no 6704 (22 October 1998) 777ndash780

Kirschvink Joseph L Altair T Maine and Hojatollah Vali ldquoPaleomagnetic Evidence of a Low-Temperature Origin of Carbonate in the Martian Meteorite ALH84001rdquo Science 275 no 5306 (14 March 1997) 1629minus1634

Kivelson Margaret Christopher T Russell Martin Volwerk Raymond J Walker and Christophe Zimmer ldquoGalileo Magnetometer Measurements A Stronger Case for a Subsurface Ocean at Europardquo Science 289 no 5483 (25 August 2000) 1340ndash1343

Kosovichev A G and V V Zharkova ldquoX-ray Flare Sparks Quake Inside Sunrdquo Nature 383 no 6683 (28 May 1998) 317

Kouveliotou C S Dieters T Strohmayer J van Paradijs G J Fishman C A Meegan K Hurley J Kommers I Smith D Frail and T Murakami ldquoAn X-ray Pulsar with a Superstrong Magnetic Field in the Soft Gamma-Ray Repeater SGR1806-20rdquo Nature 393 no 6682 (21 May 1998) 235ndash237

Lawrence D J W C Feldman B L Barraclough A B Binder R C Elphic S Maurice and D R Thomsen ldquoGlobal Elemental Maps and the Moon The Lunar Prospector Gamma-Ray Spectrometerrdquo Science 281 no 5382 (4 September 1998) 1484ndash1489

Luu Jane Brian G Marsden David Jewitt Chadwick A Trujillo Carl W Hergenrother Jun Chen and Warren B Offutt ldquoA New Dynamic Class of Object in the Outer Solar Systemrdquo Nature 387 no 6633 (5 June 1997) 573minus575

Malin Michael C and Kenneth S Edget ldquoSedimentary Rocks of Early Marsrdquo Science 290 no 5498 (8 December 2000) 1927ndash1937

Maloney Lawrence D ldquoGalileo Probersquos Guardian Angelrdquo Design News 52 no 5 (3 March 1997) 74minus83

McCord T B G B Hansen F P Fanale R W Carlson D L Matson TV Johnson W D Smythe J K Crowley P D Martin A Ocampo C A Hibbitts J C Granahan and the NIMS Team ldquoSalts on Europarsquos Surface Detected by Galileo Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometerrdquo Science 280 no 5367 (22 May 1998) 1242

McEwen Alfred S Michael C Malin Michael H Carr and William K Hartmann ldquoVoluminous Volcanism on Early Mars Revealed in Valles Marinerisrdquo Nature 397 no 6720 (18 February 1999) 584

319


McKay David S Everett K Gibson Jr Kathie L Thomas-Keptra Hojatollah Vali Christopher S Romanek Simon J Clemett Xavier D F Chillier Claude R Maechling and Richard N Zare ldquoSearch for Past Life on Mars Possible Relic Biogenic Activity in Martian Meteorite ALH84001rdquo Science 273 no 5277 (16 August 1996) 924minus930

Meltzer Michael Mission to Jupiter A History of the Galileo Project Washington DC NASA 2007

Mojzsis S J G Arrhenius K D McKeegan T M Harrison A P Nutman and C R L Frien ldquoEvidence for Life on Earth Before 3800 Million Years Agordquo Nature 384 no 6604 (7 November 1996) 55minus60

NASA Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 1996 Activities Washington DC 1997


NASA ldquoUS and Russian Human Space Flights 1961ndashSeptember 30 2000rdquo in Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 2000 Activities Washington DC 2001

NASA Advisory Council ldquoReport on the Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force on the International Space Stationrdquo Washington DC 21 April 1998 httphistorynasagov 32999pdf (accessed 24 September 2007)

NASA Office of Inspector General ldquoAssessment of the Triana Missionrdquo Final report G-99-013 Washington DC 10 September 1999 httpoignasagovoldinspections_assess mentsg-99-013pdf (accessed 3 March 2008)

NASA Office of Inspector General ldquoNASA Oversight of Russian Biotechnology Research 1994ndash1997rdquo NASA report G-00-07 Washington DC 13 October 2000 httpoig nasagovoldinspections_assessmentsg-00-007pdf (accessed 8 April 2008)

Owen Tobias Paul Mahaffy H B Niemann Sushil Atreya Thomas Donahue Akiva Bar-Nun and Imke de Pater ldquoA Low-Temperature Origin for the Planetesimals that Formed Jupiterrdquo Nature 402 no 6759 (18 November 1999) 269ndash270

Phillips Edward H ldquoOvermyer Dies in Crashrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 144 no 14 (1 April 1996) 29

Piro L G Garmire M Garcia G Stratta E Costa M Feroci P Meszaros M Vietri H Bradt D Frail F Frontera J Halpern J Heise K Hurley N Kawai R M Kippen F Marshall T Murakami V V Sokolov T Takeshima and A Yoshida ldquoObservation of X-ray Lines from a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB991216) Evidence of Moving Ejecta from the Progenitorrdquo Science 290 no 5493 (3 November 2000) 955ndash958

320


Sawyer Kathy The Rock from Mars A Detective Story on Two Planets New York Random House 2006

Smith Bruce ldquoFast Launched Successfullyrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 145 no 9 (26 August 1996) 71

Smith David E Maria T Zuber Sean C Solomon Roger J Phillips James W Head James B Garvin W Bruce Banerdt Duane O Muhleman Gordon H Pettengill Gregory A Neumann Frank G Lemoine James A Abshire Oded Aharonson C David Brown Steven A Hauck Anton B Ivanov Patrick J McGovern H Jay Zwally and Thomas C Duxbury ldquoThe Global Topography of Mars and Implications for Surface Evolutionrdquo Science 284 no 5419 (28 May 1999) 1495ndash1503

Sonett C P E P Kvale A Zakharian Marjarie A Chan and T M Demko ldquoLate Proterozoic and Paleozoic Tides Retreat of the Moon and Rotation of the Earthrdquo Science 273 no 5271 (5 July 1996) 100minus104

Stern Robert J and Mohamed Gamal ldquoThe Origin of the Great Bend of the Nile from SIR-CXshySAR Imageryrdquo Science 274 no 5293 (6 December 1996) 1696minus1698

Thomas Peter C Richard P Binzel Michael J Gaffey and Alex D Storrs ldquoImpact Excavation on Asteroid 4 Vesta Hubble Space Telescope Resultsrdquo Science 277 no 5331 (5 September 1997) 1492minus1495

U S Air Force Headquarters The Roswell Report Case Closed Washington DC GPO 1997

US General Accounting Office ldquoExport Controls International Space Station Technology Transfersrdquo Report no NSIAD-00-14 Washington DC 3 November 1999 httpwwwgaogovarchive2000ns00014pdf (accessed 21 March 2008)

US General Accounting Office ldquoInformation Security Many NASA Mission-Critical Systems Face Serious Risksrdquo Report no GAOAIMD-99-47 Washington DC May 1999 httpwwwgaogovarchive1999ai99047pdf (accessed 7 February 2008)

US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Shuttle Human Capital and Safety Upgrade Challenges Require Continued Attentionrdquo Report no GAONSIADGGD-00-186 Washington DC August 2000 httpwwwgaogovarchive2000n200186pdf (accessed 9 May 2008)

US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Station Russian Commitment and Cost Control Problemsrdquo Report no GAONSIAD-99-175 Washington DC August 1999 httpwwwgaogovarchive1999ns99175pdf (accessed 25 February 2008)

US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Station US Life-Cycle Funding Requirements Statement of Allen Li Associate Director Defense Acquisitions Issues National Securit

321


and International Affairs Divisionrdquo Testimony before the House Committee on Science and Technology Document no GAOT-NSIAD-98-212 24 June 1998

US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Surveillance DOD and NASA Need Consolidated Requirements and a Coordinated Planrdquo Report no NSIAD 98-42 Washington DC 1 December 1997

US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Transportation Status of the X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle Programrdquo Report no NIASD-99-176 Washington DC 11 August 1999 httpwwwgaogovarchive1999ns99176pdf (accessed 4 March 2008)

Wijnands Rudy and Michiel van der Klis ldquoA Millisecond Pulsar in an X-ray Binary Systemrdquo Nature 394 no 6691 (23 July 1998) 344ndash346

Zuber Maria T David E Smith Sean C Solomon James B Abshire Robert S Afzal Oded Aharonson Kathryn Fishbaugh Peter G Ford Herbert V Frey James B Garvin James W Head Anton B Ivanov Catherine L Johnson Duane O Muhleman Gregory A Neumann Gordon H Pettengill Roger J Phillips Xiaoli Sun H Jay Zwally W Bruce Banerdt and Thomas C Duxbury ldquoObservations of the North Polar Region of Mars from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeterrdquo Science 282 no 5396 (11 December 1998) 2053

Zuber Marie T Sean C Solomon Roger J Phillips David E Smith G Leonard Tyler Oded Aharonson Georges Balmino W Bruce Banerdt James W Head Catherine L Johnson Frank G Lemoine Patrick J McGovern Gregory A Neumann David D Rowlands and Shijie Zhong ldquoInternal Structure and Early Thermal Evolution of Mars from Mars Global Surveyor Topography and Gravityrdquo Science 287 no 5459 (10 March 2000) 1788minus1893

The writers used NASA news releases contract announcements policy directives NASArsquos HQ Bulletin Spacewarn Bulletin and NASA Daily News Summary news releases of aeronautics industry companies and universities such as Ball Aerospace amp Technologies Corporation The Boeing Company Cordant Technologies Lockheed Martin Medialink Worldwide SkyCorp SPACEHAB California Institute of Technology and Cornell University news articles of wire services including Africa News Service Agence France-Presse Armed Forces Newswire Service Associated Press Bloomberg News Business Wire Dow Jones Newswire Federal Document Clearing House Gannett News Service Knight-Ridder News Service PR Newswire Reuters Tribune News Services United Press International and US Newswire newspaper articles from Aerospace Daily Aerospace News Albuquerque Journal Antelope Valley Press Arizona Daily Star Atlanta Journal Baltimore Sun Birmingham News Boston Globe Boston Herald Buffalo News Charleston Gazette Chicago Tribune Christian Science Monitor Cleveland Plain Dealer Dayton Daily News Defense Daily Denver Post Des Moines Register Deseret News Federal Computer Week Financial Times Flight International Florida Today Houston Chronicle Huntsville Times Kansas City Star Los Angeles Daily News Los Angeles Times Miami Herald New Orleans Times-Picayune New York Times Newsday Oregonian Orlando Sentinel Palm Beach Post Press Democrat Roanoke Times Rocky Mountain News Russia Today Sacramento Bee Salt Lake Tribune San Diego Union-Tribune San Francisco Chronicle San Jose Mercury News Seattle Post-Intelligencer Seattle Times Space Business

322


News Space Flight Now Space News St Petersburg Times Star-Ledger Sun-Sentinel Sunday Times Times-Dispatch UniSci Science and Research News USA Today Virginian-Pilot Virginian-Pilot and the Ledger-Star Wall Street Journal Washington Post and Washington Times and television news reports from CNNcom and BBC News

323

TITLE PAGE

PREFACE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1996

JANUARY 1996

FEBRUARY 1996

MARCH 1996

APRIL 1996

MAY 1996

JUNE 1996

JULY 1996

AUGUST 1996

SEPTEMBER 1996

OCTOBER 1996

NOVEMBER 1996

DECEMBER 1996

1997

JANUARY 1997

FEBRUARY 1997

MARCH 1997

APRIL 1997

MAY 1997

JUNE 1997

JULY 1997

AUGUST 1997

SEPTEMBER 1997

OCTOBER 1997

NOVEMBER 1997

DECEMBER 1997

1998

JANUARY 1998

FEBRUARY 1998

MARCH 1998

APRIL 1998

MAY 1998

JUNE 1998

JULY 1998

AUGUST 1998

SEPTEMBER 1998

OCTOBER 1998

NOVEMBER 1998

DECEMBER 1998

1999

JANUARY 1999

FEBRUARY 1999

MARCH 1999

APRIL 1999

MAY 1999

JUNE 1999

JULY 1999

AUGUST 1999

SEPTEMBER 1999

OCTOBER 1999

NOVEMBER 1999

DECEMBER 1999

2000

JANUARY 2000

FEBRUARY 2000

MARCH 2000

APRIL 2000

MAY 2000

JUNE 2000

JULY 2000

AUGUST 2000

SEPTEMBER 2000

OCTOBER 2000

NOVEMBER 2000

DECEMBER 2000

APPENDIX A - TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

APPENDIX B - BIBLIOGRAPHY


PREFACE

This report is a chronological compilation of narrative summaries of news reports and

government documents highlighting significant events and developments in United States and

foreign aeronautics and astronautics It covers the years 1996 through 2000 These summaries

provide a day-by-day recounting of major activities such as administrative developments

awards launches scientific discoveries corporate and government research results and other

events in countries with aeronautics and astronautics programs Researchers used the archives

and files housed in the NASA History Division as well as reports and databases on the NASA

Web site

i


TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE i




JANUARY 1999 179 FEBRUARY 1999 183

iii


MARCH 1999 187 APRIL 1999 191 MAY 1999 196 JUNE 1999 201 JULY 1999 207 AUGUST 1999 213 SEPTEMBER 1999 219 OCTOBER 1999 224 NOVEMBER 1999 232 DECEMBER 1999 239


APPENDIX A TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS 311

APPENDIX B BIBLIOGRAPHY 317

iv


JANUARY 1996

8 January Furloughed NASA employees returned to work at the end of a federal government shutdown of 14 to 21 days NASA had allowed some critical employees to return before others The government shutdown resulting from a budget stalemate between the Republican Congress and the Democratic White House forced NASA to cease operations and to clear thousands of its employees from field centers across the country Upon resuming its normal proceedings NASA faced a backlog of work because of the disruption Workers returning to Houstonrsquos Johnson Space Center (JSC) were especially anxious to catch up because the Center had only three days to prepare for a scheduled Shuttle launch A snowstorm delayed for a few more hours the return of workers to Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville Alabama1

9 January A delegation from the U S Congress traveled to Russia to meet with Russian Space Agency officials Representatives Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) members of the subcommittee in charge of NASArsquos funding⎯the Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies⎯led the contingent Their goal was to keep intact the coalition of countries dedicated to making the International Space Station (ISS) a reality Faced with Russian insistence that the planned space station connect with the Russian space station Mir the US lawmakers warned Russian officials not to pursue radical changes in the plans for the space station Sensenbrenner noted that obstinacy on the part of the Russians might result in the coalitionrsquos building the ISS without Russian involvement2

12 January G Porter Bridwell retired after nearly 40 years of service at MSFC in Huntsville Alabama Bridwell had served as Director of MSFC from 1994 until his retirement He left the Center with an annual operating budget of US$25 billion and more than 3000 employees Bridwell had spent most of his career at MSFC serving briefly as Acting Director of Stennis Space Center in 1987 and at NASA Headquarters from 1993 to 1994 Bridwell had also been a member of the space station redesign team During his tenure Bridwell had received NASArsquos Exceptional Service Medal the Outstanding Leadership Medal and the Exceptional Achievement Medal attaining the rank of Meritorious Executive3 NASA announced that J Wayne Littles would take over as the new Director of MSFC4

Republican presidential candidate Patrick J Buchanan announced that he would cancel a controversial political advertisement using images of the Space Shuttle Challenger accident Responding to harsh criticism from New Hampshire residents Buchanan removed the footage of Challenger from the television spot Buchanan stated that the purpose of the advertisement his first in the crucial primary state of New Hampshire was to demonstrate his service to President Ronald Reagan during difficult times However in the home state of teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe who had died in the accident many residents felt that the campaignrsquos use of the

1 NASA ldquoNASA Headquarters Regroups After Longest Federal Shutdownrdquo HQ Bulletin 5 February 1996 John Makeio ldquoFederal Employees Face Backlog Hererdquo Houston Chronicle 9 January 1996 2 Ben Lannotta ldquoCongress to Russia Drop MirndashStation Link Ideardquo Space News 15ndash21 January 1996 3 20 3 Martin Burkey ldquoBridwell Bids MSFC Farewell with Optimismrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 12 January 1996 4 NASA ldquoLittles Named Director of Marshall Space Flight Centerrdquo news release 96-3 16 January 1996

1


images exploited the event for political gain The political controversy brought to the foreground the lingering public dismay over the lost Challenger even as the 10-year anniversary of the tragedy neared5

Shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida beginning a mission focused primarily on plucking the Japanese Space Flying Unit from orbit for analysis Commander Brian Duffy led a six-person crew which included Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata Endeavour also carried a small satellite to deploy KSC officials delayed Endeavourrsquos launch for 23 minutes because of a series of communications problems between the Shuttle crew and the flight-control team Endeavourrsquos flight was the first of eight Shuttle missions planned by NASA for 19966

16 January Lockheed Martin announced its intention to cut 200 jobs at its facility for the production of external fuel tanks for NASArsquos Space Shuttle NASArsquos budget reductions had caused the layoffs according to Lockheed Lockheed Martinrsquos facility in New Orleans employed more than 2500 workers in 19967

NASA released time-lapse photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) making the images immediately available on the Internet Based on these images lauded as the deepest images of the universe ever taken scientists raised their estimate of the number of galaxies in the universe from 10 to 50 billion ldquoSuddenly Universe Gains 40 Billion More Galaxiesrdquo the New York Times reported Using a narrow ldquokeyholerdquo view and focusing the HST on a portion of the sky only the width of a dime telescope operators probed deep into the universe The images revealed the process of a starrsquos death as well as new information about how galaxies evolve HST astronomer Howard E Bond estimated that the Sun would die out in about 5 billion years8

Space Shuttle Endeavourrsquos crew used the spacecraftrsquos 50-foot (15-meter) robotic arm to snare NASArsquos Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology Flyer (OAST-Flyer) satellite The OAST-Flyer valued at US$10 million weighed 2600 pounds (1200 kilograms)9

18 January Astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour tested new NASA spacesuits in extreme cold In preparation for work on the ISS US astronaut Winston E Scott stood nearly motionless in space for 35 minutes in temperatures nearing 100deg below 0degF (-7333degC) to test the suitrsquos insulating capacity In completing the exercise Scott became the second African American man to walk in space The newly improved suits produced at a cost of US$10 million each proved an

5 Howard Kurtz ldquoTelevision Ad Backfires on Buchananrdquo Washington Post 12 January 1996 Associated Press ldquoBuchanan Chastised for Using Challenger Image in TV Adrdquo 12 January 1996 6 Mark Carreau ldquoShuttle Blasts Off in Pursuit of Satellite After Slight Delayrdquo Houston Chronicle 12 January 1996 7 Associated Press ldquoLockheed Martin Cuts Shuttle Program Jobsrdquo 16 January 1996 8 John Noble Wilford ldquoSuddenly Universe Gains 40 Billion More Galaxiesrdquo New York Times 16 January 1996 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNASA Takes Portrait of Universerdquo Washington Post 16 January 1996 NASA ldquoNew Hubble Images Availablerdquo news release N96-2 17 January 1996 9 Associated Press ldquoShuttlersquos Astronauts Grab a 4-Ton Japanese Science Satellite from Its Orbitrdquo 17 January 1996 Mark Carreau ldquoShuttle Dodges Military Satellite on Way To Retrieve Japanese Craftrdquo Houston Chronicle 13 January 1996 Michael Cabbage ldquoSatellite Stowedrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 14 January 1996

2


effective barrier against the cold The gloves and the boots of the suits contained heating elements NASA made the thermal improvements to the spacesuits after the astronauts became cold during the February 1995 spacewalk causing its early termination10

At a conference of the American Astronomical Society in San Antonio Texas a team of US astronomers announced the discovery of two new stars with the characteristics to sustain life within their solar systems The astronomers identified the bodies both visible to the naked eye as star 70 Virginis in the constellation Virgo and a star orbiting 47 Ursae Majoris in the Big Dipper Geoffrey Marcy and Paul Butler researchers affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco State University spent nine years monitoring 120 Sun-like stars in order to discover the two stars11

21 January Space Shuttle Endeavour landed safely after a successful nine-day mission The Shuttle crew accomplished its primary task of capturing a Japanese satellite The early-morning landing in which the Shuttle returned to Earth under a shroud of darkness was a rare occurrence12

22 January NASA released its analysis of the data from the Galileo probe mission to Jupiter information that had caused scientists to rethink their theories about Jupiterrsquos formation The data suggested that Jupiter does not have the three-tiered cloud structure scientists had anticipated and that the amount of helium present on Jupiter is half of scientistsrsquo projections NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science Wesley T Huntress Jr touted the data collected as beyond NASArsquos highest expectations The Galileo probe had been one of NASArsquos most challenging missions undertaken to obtain scientific data According to NASA the probe had made the most difficult planetary atmospheric entry ever attempted surviving entry speeds of more than 100000 miles (160000 kilometers) per hour and temperatures twice as hot as the surface of the Sun13

23 January George W S Abbey became the seventh Director of JSC in Houston Texas Abbey had been Acting Director since Carolyn Hunter had stepped down from the post on 4 August 1995 According to NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin Abbeyrsquos distinguished NASA career made him the right man for the job Administrator Goldin announced ldquoGeorge Abbey is uniquely qualified to lead the Johnson team into the future Over the course of his eminent career with NASA he has distinguished himself as an innovator and pioneer at all levels of Agency managementrdquo Abbey had begun working at NASA in 1967 after serving as a pilot in the US Air Force He had worked on the Apollo Spacecraft Program before becoming Director of Flight Operations NASA had recognized Abbeyrsquos superior service by awarding him its Exceptional Service Medal and two Distinguished Service Medals14

10 Michael Cabbage ldquoStaying Warm in Cosmic Coldrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 18 January 1996 Jet Magazine ldquoNavy Captain Winston Scott Becomes Second Black To Walk in Spacerdquo 5 February 1996 24 11 Kathy Sawyer ldquoTwo Planets Discovered that Might Sustain Liferdquo Washington Post 18 January 1996 12 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Crew Lands After Success with 2 Satellites 2 Space Walksrdquo 21 January 1996 13 NASA ldquoGalileo Probe Suggests Planetary Science Reappraisalrdquo news release 96-10 22 January 1996 14 NASA ldquoAbbey Named Director of Johnson Space Centerrdquo news release 96-11 23 January 1996

3


28 January NASA commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the Challenger tragedy In advance of the anniversary NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin reaffirmed NASArsquos dual commitments to exploring the frontiers of the universe and to maintaining the highest safety standard possible According to Goldin ldquothe best way to honor the memories of the crew of Challenger and of all the men and women who have given their lives to explore the frontiers of air and space is to continue their bold tradition of exploration and innovationrdquo In the decade following the accident NASA had instituted multiple safety changes in the Shuttle program including the nine changes in the programrsquos structure recommended by the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident (Rogers Commission) By the end of January 1996 NASA had launched 49 Shuttle missions since the Challenger accident and had successfully deployed the HST Memorial observances at KSC and JSC took place at 1139 am (EST) the exact time that Challenger exploded15

30 January NASA and the Russian Space Agency announced that the United States and Russia had reached an agreement to extend the ShuttlendashMir collaboration until 1998 with both countries reaffirming their commitments to building the ISS At the time of the agreement Russia was continuing to negotiate with the international space community to maintain the Russian station Mir as a long-term portal to the ISS Through additional Shuttle flights to the Mir outpost the United States planned to deliver thousands of pounds of materials to space which otherwise would have required Russian launches The United States offered Russia this significant assistance in the hope that the cash-strapped country would be able to keep its commitments to the ISS project Vice President Albert A Gore Jr and Russian Prime Minister Viktor S Chernomyrdin announced concurrently that US astronaut William M Shepherd and Russian cosmonaut Sergei K Krikalev would be the first crew members to live aboard the ISS16

NASA announced completion of the exterior of the US modules constructed to house the astronauts aboard the ISS as well as more than 80000 pounds (36000 kilograms) of flight hardware for the station With the completion of the modules the United States successfully attained the first benchmark in the long and expensive process to complete its part of the ISS Boeing workers had completed the project at MSFC NASA planned to launch the first node of the ISS in December 199717

31 January NASA announced that in collaboration with industry leaders and university scholars it had developed an instrument that generates the worldrsquos most intense source of commercial x-rays more than 100 times stronger than conventional x-rays ldquoThis new optical instrument provides

15 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Program Changes and Accomplishments Since 1986rdquo news release January 1996 NASA ldquoAdministrator Goldin Issues Statement on Challenger Observancerdquo news release 96-2 16 January 1996 16 NASA ldquoNASA and RSA Agree To Extend ShuttlendashMir Activitiesrdquo news release 96-18 30 January 1996 Warren E Leary ldquoUS To Help Defray Russiarsquos Expenses for the Space Stationrdquo New York Times 1 February 1996 17 NASA ldquoExterior of US Space Station Modules Completed Flight Hardware on Track for Launch in 1997rdquo news release 96-17 30 January 1996 NASA ldquoUnited Statesrsquo Space Station Modules Are Right on Trackrdquo HQ Bulletin 20 February 1996 3 The Boeing Company ldquoExterior of US Space Station Modules Completed Flight Hardware on Track First Launch in 1997rdquo news release 5 February 1996

4


something never before possible a capability to control the direction for x-ray beamsrdquo said Walter M Gibson professor at State University of New York at Albany Using capillary optics the instrument could focus more precisely on a target in a research or medical situation Daniel C Carter Director of MSFC postulated that the new instrument would have numerous medical and commercial applications including improvements in drug research medical imaging and forensic science18

FEBRUARY 1996

1 February Astronomers at California Institute of Technology announced the discovery of what they believed to be the most distant galaxy ever glimpsed from the Earth The team of scientists including Thomas A Barlow Limin Liu Wallace L W Sargent and Donna S Womble had stumbled across the unnamed galaxy while studying a quasar silhouetted by the galaxyrsquos light The team used the W M Keck Observatory atop the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii In comparison to other documented galaxies their find was a relatively young galaxy⎯probably formed less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang The galaxy resides near the constellation Virgo Ironically since the galaxy lies 14 billion light-years away from Earth the scientists had no way of knowing whether their discovery still actually existed The scientists hoped that their discovery would offer new understanding of the period when stars began to congregate into galaxies19

2 February Space Shuttle Program Director Bryan D OrsquoConnor announced his resignation from NASA effective at the end of February 1996 OrsquoConnor stated that the transition in Shuttle management had presented him with an opportunity to leave NASA without causing undue disruption In the months before his resignation OrsquoConnor had voiced some concerns about NASArsquos planned transfer of responsibility for Shuttle flight operations to United Space Alliance a private contractor formed by Lockheed Martin and Rockwell International In announcing his departure OrsquoConnor praised NASA workers and astronauts for their exemplary service After the 1986 Challenger accident OrsquoConnor had played an important role in restoring the Shuttle program and restructuring NASA OrsquoConnor a former US Marine Corps pilot and astronaut had directed a major overhaul of the space station program taking over as Director of the Space Shuttle Program in 199420

6 February NASA announced its plan to shift authority over the Shuttle program from NASA Headquarters in Washington DC to Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston Texas JSC also would take control over construction of the International Space Station The shift was one of NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldinrsquos efforts to restructure NASA and remove layers of bureaucracy

18 NASA ldquoNASA Helps Invent Revolutionary X-ray Instrumentrdquo news release 96-19 31 January 1996 NASA ldquoNASA Helps Invent Revolutionary X-ray Devicerdquo HQ Bulletin 4 March 1996 3 19California Institute of Technology ldquoAstronomers Discover the Most Distant Galaxyrdquo news release 31 January 1996 Reuters ldquoScientists Discover Farthest Galaxy Yetrdquo 1 February 1996 John Noble Wilford ldquoNew Galaxy May Shed Light on Universerdquo New York Times 1 February 1996 20NASA ldquoOrsquoConnor To Leave NASArdquo news release 96-23 2 February 1996 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNASA Space Shuttle Director Resignsrdquo Washington Post 3 February 1996

5


Goldinrsquos mission centered on controlling costs and improving efficiency With the change in organization key managers at JSC and other regional centers such as Kennedy Space Center (KSC) gained new authority to act without consulting Goldin or other officials at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC The change caused some observers to comment that NASA was shifting back to the less strictly hierarchical model of operation that had characterized it before the Challenger accident In response to the Challenger tragedy and the ensuing Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident (Rogers Commission Report) NASA had centralized some of its operations to avoid the poor communication between regional centers that had contributed to the tragedy21

12 February Japanrsquos National Space Development Agency (NASDA) experienced a setback when one of its prototypes for a small robotic spacecraft landed in the ocean and sank The Japanese officials had anticipated the ocean landing immediately after the launch of the Hyflex shuttle the Hope-X from an island in southern Japan In spite of the loss of its shuttle NASDA did not consider the exercise an entire failure The Hope-X had launched successfully separated from its rocket at a height of 70 miles (113 kilometers) and then returned to Earth 19 minutes later as planned The problem occurred when the craft splashed into the ocean and a rope connecting the 1-ton (900shykilogram or 09-tonne) shuttle to its flotation device broke causing it to sink NASDA reported that it had intended to collect data during the flight to test the shuttlersquos fitness for reentry but had been unable to procure much of the information needed Japan had manufactured the US$37 million shuttle domestically planning the exercise as a part of its effort to bolster its fledgling

22space program

NASA announced the selection of eight proposals for its newly inaugurated Advanced Concepts Research Projects (ACRP) program NASA had received more than 100 proposals for the program founded in September 1995 to identify and support new ideas and technologies that might eventually improve the US space program The ACRP program allowing up to US$250000 in support for each selected proposal included proposals covering a wide spectrum of technologies and fields such as ldquofusion-based space propulsion optical computing robotics interplanetary navigation materials and structure ultra-lightweight large aperture optics and innovative modular spacecraft architectural conceptsrdquo23

13 February The television series Home Improvement aired an episode showing members of Shuttle Columbiarsquos crew in scenes shot in space The Shuttlersquos crew had captured the film during Mission STS-73 in October 1995 The airing marked the first time that NASA had allowed the filming of operations in space specifically for a television series The NASA crew included Kenneth D Bowersox Catherine G Coleman Frederick W Leslie Kathryn C Thornton and

21 NASA ldquoNASA Headquarters Begins Migrating Functions to the Centersrdquo HQ Bulletin 20 February 1996 1 Associated Press ldquoNASA Shifts Shuttle Station Authority from Washington to Houstonrdquo 7 February 1996 Larry Wheeler ldquoGoldinrsquos Plan To Decentralize NASA Raises Challenger Concernsrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 7 February 1996 22 Associated Press ldquoJapanese Shuttle Sinksrdquo 12 February 1996 23 NASA ldquoInnovative Space Concepts Selected for Negotiationsrdquo news release 96-28 12 February 1996

6


Albert Sacco Jr Bowersox who had appeared previously on Home Improvement praised the event as a public relations achievement for NASA24

17 February NASA launched a space probe aimed at a faraway asteroid only about twice the size of Manhattan Island Scientists intended the probe called Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) to reach the asteroid in three years If the mission succeeded NASA planned for the probe to orbit the asteroid for nearly one year before eventually crashing into the rock Astronomers hoped that the data gathered during the exercise would provide new information about the formation of the universe With a budget of US$120 million the probe mission was a relatively cheap foray into the gathering of space data The probersquos restricted budget was necessary because the new Discovery program had cost US$150 million and NASA had a three-year cap on the development of new spacecraft Johns Hopkins University successfully engineered the craft within the stringent guidelines25

20 February Receiving congratulations from the rest of the international space community Russia celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Russian space station Mir The pathbreaking spacecraft had hosted a steady stream of astronauts for long-term stays in space throughout the late 1980s and 1990s transcending many of the changes in the political structure of its home country The Soviet space program had launched the first Mir module on 20 February 1986 from the desert of Kazakhstan but because of Cold War tensions the Soviets had not released specific information about the station as it entered orbit module by module Rockets had transported the individual modules into space where cosmonauts assembled them The fully assembled space station weighed 130 tons (120000 kilograms or 120 tonnes) As tensions between the United States and the former Soviet Union lessened Shuttle missions to Mir had become frequent During the 1990s many countries including the United States had paid the fledgling Soviet space administration which became the Russian Space Agency hundreds of millions of dollars to send their astronauts to Mir Thus Mir had provided the USSR with a needed source of revenue However since the fall of the Soviet Union the Russian space program had received only one-fifth of the government funding provided to the Soviet space program In 1996 even with Mir in an advanced state of decline Russian officials remained committed to preserving the aging craftrsquos lifespan Marcia S Smith an aerospace expert with the Congressional Research Service described Mirrsquos state as akin to ldquoa car that has 200000 miles [320000 kilometers] on itrdquo Nevertheless the space station had provided scientists with the only spacecraft in space consistently occupied by humans for a decade a significant contribution that deserved commemoration26

21 February

24 Ann Hodges ldquolsquoHome Improvementrsquo Project Takes On a New Kind of Spacerdquo Houston Chronicle 12 February 1996 25 NASA ldquoNEAR Sent To Study Erosrdquo HQ Bulletin 20 February 1996 3 Associated Press ldquoAsteroid Visitrdquo 17 February 1996 26 European Space Agency news release 15 February 1996 Associated Press ldquoRussia-Spacerdquo 20 February 1996 Associated Press ldquoRussian Space Program Drifting Toward Disasterrdquo 19 February 1996

7


Russia launched the Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts The Russian Space Agency intended the mission to Mir to bring Mir residents Yuri P Gidzenko Sergei V Avdeyev and Thomas Reiter back to Earth after their lengthy stay aboard the space station27

22 February Mission STS-75 the 19th mission of Shuttle Columbia launched from KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida A seven-person crew embarked on the mission scheduled to last 13 days Scott J Horowitz the first Shuttle pilot with a PhD captained STS-75 NASA astronauts Andrew M Allen Jeffrey A Hoffman and Franklin R Chang-Digraveaz Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier and two Italian astronauts Umberto Guidoni and Maurizio Cheli made up the crew One of the missionrsquos priorities was to place in flight the Italian tethered satellite system (TSS) which scientists had designed to harness new sources of power for the Space Shuttle An attempt in 1992 to deploy the TSS had failed when a bolt in the systemrsquos reel mechanism caused the tether to jam The US- Italian satellite had cost US$443 million to produce The satellite extended on a 12-mile (19-kilometer) tether had the potential to use its orbit to create electrical power for other spacecraft NASA planned to fly the satellite for 22 hours To retrieve the satellite the crew intended to retract the tether until the satellite was about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the Shuttle allowing it to hover at this distance while the Shuttle maneuvered into position to pick it

28up

25 February NASA announced that the tethered satellite experiment had failed The 12-mile (19-kilometer) tether attaching the 05-ton (450-kilogram or 045-tonne) satellite to Shuttle Columbia broke unexpectedly just as the tether had nearly reached its full extension Before the tether broke the experiment to use an orbiting satellite to produce electricity had been proceeding smoothly The astronauts had been in the process of extending the satellite from the Space Shuttle for more than 5 hours when they noted a decrease in tension and realized that the tether and satellite had broken away NASA Commander Andrew M Allen responded to the break immediately directing the Shuttle away from the satellite to prevent a collision However the satellite never came close to the Shuttle it was more than 18 miles (29 kilometers) away only a few minutes after breaking free NASA officials could not immediately identify the cause of the break The astronauts aboard the Shuttle managed to record images of the satellite trailing away from the Shuttle This footage a black and white rendering of the tether disappearing into space reached Flight Command Center in Houston Texas shortly after the event ldquoThose are some tether dynamics we did not want to seerdquo stated one Mission Control operative NASA dismissed the idea of attempting to retrieve the satellite explaining that although it was technically possible such a mission would be too dangerous and too costly in consumption of fuel29

27 NASA Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 1996 Activities (Washington DC 1996) p 102 28 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Mission STS-75mdashPress Kitrdquo news release 96-27 February 1996 William J Broad ldquoShuttle Blasts Off for High-Wire Act To Unfurl 125 Miles of Electrical Cable in Spacerdquo New York Times 23 February 1996 William Harwood ldquoShuttle Begins Mission To Deploy Space Power Ball on 125-Mile Tetherrdquo Washington Post 23 February 1996 29NASA ldquoSTS-75 Mission Control Status Report No 10rdquo 26 February 1996 Steve Marshall ldquoSatellite Tether Snaps Shuttle Saferdquo USA Today 26 February 1996 William Harwood ldquoScience Satellite Is Lost as Shuttle Tether Breaksrdquo Washington Post 26 February 1996

8


26 February NASA formed an independent panel to review the failure of the tethered satellite experiment and the loss of the satellite NASA selected Kenneth J Szalai Director of Dryden Flight Research Center to chair the panel The formation of such an investigative body in the wake of a costly loss conformed to standard practice under NASArsquos Space Flight Operations Contingency Plan In a NASA press release announcing the panelrsquos formation Szalai stated ldquogiven the public investment in the tethered satellite it is important that we find out what went wrongrdquo30

27 February Continuing its efforts to cut costs by using private contractors NASA awarded McDonnell Douglas Aerospace a US$500 million eight-year contract to provide ldquofixed-price medium-light (Med-Lite) class expendable launch vehicle servicesrdquo31 NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center managed the program and the Orbital Sciences Corporation served as the major subcontractor At the time of the agreement NASA had planned three Med-Lite missions launching from both the East Coast and the West Coast32

MARCH 1996

3 March NASA scientist Benjamin F Chao explained to the New York Times the results of his research on Earthrsquos orbit A geophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center Chao attributed the Earthrsquos slightly changed orbital pattern to the increased construction of dams As the planetrsquos population has grown people had attempted to maximize use of Earthrsquos limited water resources by building reservoirs Using geophysics international data and theoretical calculations Chao postulated that this increase in impounded water on the Earthrsquos surface had actually helped speed up the Earthrsquos orbit Chao first made public his findings in the Geophysical Research Papers Some members of the scientific community challenged his conclusions33

Columbia astronauts set a series of small fires inside the Shuttle to help NASA scientists improve their design of smoke detectors and fire extinguishers for use in a weightless environment The fires spread quickly within the enclosed vehicle Astronaut Jeffrey A Hoffman marveled at the behavior of the flames which was completely different in a weightless environment from that typically observed on Earth The fires scattered quickly and burned much more intensely than on Earth NASA had never before tested the fire-detection equipment in a space environment The fire equipment worked properly and the crew put out all fires without incident34

4 March

30NASA ldquoNASA To Form Independent Review Panelrdquo news release 96-39 26 February 1996 31 Less than two years into the agreement McDonnell Douglas Aerospace merged with the Boeing Company 32NASA ldquoMcDonnell Douglas Aerospace Awarded Contract To Provide Med-Lite ELV Servicerdquo news release 96shy40 27 February 1996 The Boeing Company ldquoBoeing Completes McDonnell Douglas Mergerrdquo news release 31 July 1997 33 Malcolm W Browne ldquoDams for Water Supply Are Altering Earthrsquos Orbit Expert Saysrdquo New York Times 3 March 1996 34 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Astronauts Set Fires To Check Safety Equipmentrdquo 3 March 1996

9


The Communist Party of China acknowledged for the first time that a failed satellite launch occurring on 15 February 1996 had killed six people and injured 57 others The Long March 3B rocket had exploded destroying the 15 Intelsat satellite and damaging 80 homes The secretive government of the Peoplersquos Republic of China had denied the major accident announcing simply that a setback had occurred However foreign news sources had captured video footage of the launch rocket as it careened out of control and exploded in a highly populated area The Chinese government ended the news blackout which had prevented its own citizens from learning of the disaster stating Chinarsquos intention to delay future launch plans35

Henry McDonald became Director of Ames Research Center (ARC) in Mountain View California NASA had selected McDonald for the position in January 1996 after the selection of former Director Ken K Munechika as NASArsquos first Director of Moffett Federal Airfield A former professor of mechanical engineering at Pennsylvania State University McDonald brought to NASA both industrial and academic experience36

5 March For the first time in its history NASA allowed a researcher to direct an experiment from his home university rather than from Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Martin Glickman led a group of scientists from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute taking control of a crystal experiment aboard Shuttle Columbia Both NASA and the scientific community praised the experiment as a crucial step in the relationship between astronauts and academic scientists Because they did not have to travel to NASArsquos MSFC in Huntsville Alabama the scientists were able to use their own instruments and data systems Using remote control they repeatedly cooled and heated the crystal samples on the Shuttle Scientists hoped that allowing universities to control experiments from their own institutions would facilitate greater student participation in experiments conducted in space37

7 March NASA released Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images revealing much of the surface of Pluto for the first time The Pluto imaging team declared the quality of the pictures better than they had expected ldquoHubble has brought Pluto from a fuzzy distant dot of light to a world which we can begin to map and watch for surface changesrdquo remarked Marc W Buie a member of the team The HST took snapshots of nearly the entire surface of the planet during 64 days of its rotation The pictures showed Plutorsquos complexity revealing nearly a dozen distinct provinces and confirming the existence of a polar ice cap which scientists had suspected but had been unable to verify NASA officials were optimistic that the images would pave the way for a proposed Pluto flyby mission in the coming years Pluto remained the only planet not yet visited by a spacecraft38

8 March NASA agreed to restructure and extend its contract with USBI Company which had previously assembled and refurbished the Shuttlersquos solid rocket boosters The new contract extended the

35 Reuters ldquoChina Fiery Launch Killed 6 Injured 57rdquo 4 March 1996 36 NASA ldquoMcDonald Named Director of Ames Research Centerrdquo news release 96-8 19 January 1996 37 Associated Press ldquoCampus Takes Control of Shuttle Experimentrdquo 5 March 1996 38 NASA ldquoHubble Reveals Surface of Pluto for First Timerdquo news release 96-43 7 March 1996

10


partnership for 45 months paying US$500 million to USBI to support the Shuttle program Based on the terms of the agreement and on USBIrsquos production schedule NASA estimated that the partnership would cover approximately seven Shuttle missions annually for the duration of the contract39

9 March Space Shuttle Columbia touched down at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida after a 16-day mission clouded by the disappointment of losing a tethered satellite NASA delayed the landing for one day because of poor weather on the coast of Florida40

12 March Having received 550 proposals NASArsquos Office of Life and Microgravity Science and Applications awarded US$17 million to 168 scientists from 32 different states to conduct microgravity research NASA and the scientific community hypothesized that further investigation into the effects of low gravity on physical processes would lead to major advances in fluid physics and material sciences The scientists hoped that if they could control the process of the formation of materials they could develop and improve a wide range of materials and products including metal alloys semiconductors ceramics glasses and polymers41

13 March NASA announced that it had developed a prototype for new software to teach pilots how to fly commercial aircraft The improved technological capabilities of computers had allowed Steve Casner a scientist at NASArsquos ARC to develop a program imitating the flight management system of an automated ldquoglassrdquo cockpit and allowing pilots to use their laptops to simulate flying Pilots could load the program onto their own computers supplementing the training they had received through classroom instruction and flight simulators The program featured five windows ldquoa controldisplay unit mode control panel two maps showing the aircraftrsquos lateral track and its vertical track and a flight mode enunciator showing which flight systems [were] currently controlling the airplanerdquo42

NASA selected astronaut Wendy B Lawrence to replace Charles J Precourt as Director of Operations Russia making Lawrence the primary contact between NASA and Russian Space Agency officials As Director of Operations Russia Lawrence became responsible for overseeing the training and preparation of US astronauts at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City Russia outside of Moscow Lawrence was the sixth astronaut to serve in this position43

14 March NASA released its blueprint for the future the ldquoNASA Strategic Plan 1996rdquo The plan laid out NASArsquos vision for the United Statesrsquo space exploration noted its history and discussed possible

39 NASA ldquoNASA RestructuresExtends USBI Contract for Solid Rocket Booster Elementsrdquo news release C96-c 8 March 1996 40 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Lands Safely After Trying Missionrdquo 10 March 1996 41 NASA ldquoScientists Receive Microgravity Research Grantsrdquo news release 96-44 12 March 1996 42 NASA ldquoNASA Develops New Laptop Pilot Training Toolrdquo news release 96-47 13 March 1996 43 NASA ldquoLawrence To Replace Precourt as NASA Manager in Russiardquo news release 96-49 13 March 1996

11


changes in strategy committing NASA to a threefold mission scientific research space exploration and development and transfer of technology Furthermore the plan outlined NASArsquos quest to address sciencersquos fundamental questions such as how did the universe galaxies stars and planets form and evolve and does life in any form however simple or complex carbon-based or other exist elsewhere than on planet Earth NASA intended the document as the starting point for future decisions regarding the allocation of its resources44

20 March At the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference Adriana C Ocampo a geologist at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced the discovery of a chain of impact craters in Chad According to a team of scientists the presence of the craters suggested that a sizable comet or asteroid might have struck ancient Earth Scientists discovered the craters using the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C) which flew on Shuttle Endeavourrsquos Mission STS-59 in 1994 The impact craters were only the second chain of large craters ever discovered on Earth and the first impact craters found using the SIR-C technology Ocampo warned that scientists still needed to excavate the ground extensively before they could be sure that the craters were indeed impact structures45

22 March Shuttle Atlantis launched from KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida setting out for the Mir space station Space Shuttle Mission STS-76 was the third Space ShuttlendashMir docking mission The Shuttle carried six astronauts including Shannon W Lucid destined for a five-month stay on the Russian space outpost Complications arose when flight controllers at Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas detected a potential problem during the launch A minor leak had occurred in one of the Shuttlersquos three hydraulic systems used to move the wing flaps After analyzing the extent of the problem however NASA officials determined that the mission could go on as planned NASA planned the mission to last nine days connecting with Mir on the third day46

Former NASA astronaut Robert F Overmyer died while test piloting the experimental Cirrus VK-30 aircraft near Duluth Minnesota Overmyer was performing a series of stalls at an altitude of more than 8000 feet (2400 meters) when the aircraft ldquodeparted from controlled flightrdquo Overmyer had served in the US Marine Corps from 1959 to 1986 becoming a NASA astronaut in 1969 and piloting Shuttle Mission STS-5 in 1982 After leaving NASA and the Marine Corps in 1986 Overmyer worked for McDonnell Douglas Aerospace47

24 March NASA astronaut Shannon W Lucid became the first female resident of the Mir space station Lucid traveled aboard Shuttle Atlantis to reach Mir planning to remain on the Russian station for five months She joined Russian cosmonauts Yuri I Onufrienko and Yury V Usachev for the long-term stay Atlantisrsquos crew unloaded more than 5000 pounds (2300 kilograms) of supplies

44 NASA ldquoNASA Strategic Plan 1998rdquo NASA policy directive (NPD)-10001 httpwwwhqnasagovofficensp NSPTOChtml (accessed 5 February 2008) NASA ldquoNASA Releases Strategy for the Futurerdquo news release 14 March 1996 45 NASA ldquoChain of Impact Craters Suggested by Spaceborne Radar Imagesrdquo news release 96-55 20 March 1996 46 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Mission STS-76mdashPress Kitrdquo news release 96-46 March 1996 William Harwood ldquoShuttle Takes Off for Russian Mir Linkuprdquo Washington Post March 23 1996 47 Edward H Phillips ldquoOvermyer Dies in Crashrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 144 no 14 (1 April 1996) 29

12


and 1000 pounds (450 kilograms) of experiment samples and equipment during the Shuttlersquos docking Lucid replaced US astronaut Norman E Thagard who had spent 110 days with the Russian crew Lucidrsquos arrival generated some controversy In attempting to convey Russiarsquos openness to having a woman aboard Mir cosmonaut Yuri N Glazkov commented that the crew would appreciate Lucidrsquos presence because ldquowe know women love to cleanrdquo Not surprisingly some people resented his remark48

27 March NASA astronauts Michael R ldquoRichrdquo Clifford and Linda M Godwin made an historic spacewalk outside the orbiting Mir space station For the first time astronauts exited Mir with the Shuttle docked at the station Clifford and Godwin wearing jet packs as a precaution scaled the passageway connecting Shuttle Atlantis with the Mir complex installing several experiment boxes on the outside of the space station Some of these boxes were ldquocosmic dust catchersrdquo meant to gather samples of the materials that might smash into orbiting space stations The spacewalk and associated experiments were part of ongoing research in preparation for the construction of the new International Space Station NASA regarded the spacewalk as more dangerous than usual because the Shuttle was docked with Mir and thus unable to give chase quickly if one of the astronauts broke away from the spacecraft49

Preparing to take over the administration of the Shuttle program from NASA the Rockwell-Lockheed Martin joint venture United Space Alliance (USA) named James C Adamson as its chief operating officer Adamson came to USA from Lockheed Martin where he had served since 1994 as a group vice president and general manager of Lockheedrsquos Engineering and Science Services Adamson had served as an astronaut at NASA from 1984 to 1992 spending more than 334 hours in space as a part of Missions STS-28 and STS-4350

APRIL 1996

1 April Shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in Californiarsquos Mojave Desert The nine-day mission nearly came to an abrupt halt when Atlantisrsquos crew had difficulty opening the Shuttlersquos cargo bay doors during descent After considering an emergency landing NASA controllers directed Atlantisrsquos crew to open the doors manually The crew successfully performed this necessary maneuver only to confront dangerous weather that prevented their landing at Kennedy Space Center51

4 April An international team of researchers announced that while tracking Comet Hyakutake in March 1996 they had discovered x-rays emitting from the comet German scientists working at Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching Germany had collaborated on the

48 William Harwood ldquoUS Woman To Start Stay on Russian Space Stationrdquo Washington Post 24 March 1996 Associated Press ldquoFemale Astronaut Settles In on Mirrdquo 25 March 1996 49 Associated Press ldquoSpacewalking Astronauts Venture Outside Atlantis-Mir Complexrdquo 27 March 1996 Todd Halverson ldquoWalkers Prepare for Historic Trek Outside Mir Stationrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 27 March 1996 50 Houston Chronicle ldquoUnited Space Alliance Taps New Top Officersrdquo 27 March 1996 51 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Back Safely After Mir Missionrdquo 1 April 1996

13


project with NASA scientists based at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland Konrad Dennryl who had directed the use of Germanyrsquos ROSAT (Roumlntgensatellit) for the project called the discovery of the x-rays ldquoa thrilling momentrdquo The comet emitted far stronger radiation signals than the scientists had expected about 100 times brighter than anticipated The scientists could not explain why the comet gave off such intense x-rays but offered two preliminary hypotheses 1) the gaseous molecules surrounding the comet absorbed x-rays from the Sun before reemitting the same x-rays or 2) violent collisions between the comet material and the supersonic wind and particles from the Sun produced the extraordinarily strong x-rays The scientists vowed to ascertain conclusively why the comet x-rays behaved as they did52

9 April Rockwell International Corporation pled guilty to charges of violating federal law in disposing of hazardous waste Federal prosecutors had charged the company with violating the law after a 1994 explosion at a Rockwell rocket-testing facility in Southern California killed scientists Otto K Heiney and Larry A Pugh Rockwellrsquos Chief Executive Officer Donald R Beall called the incident ldquoa corporate failure for which we accept responsibilityrdquo By pleading guilty Rockwell acknowledged liability and agreed to pay a US$65 million fine According to the US Department of Justice the case was only one aspect of a long-term investigation into Rockwellrsquos compliance with environmental regulations an investigation that Rockwellrsquos guilty plea did not end Federal auditors were also looking into the possibility that Rockwell had overcharged NASA and the US Department of Defense for disposal costs53

NASA made its high-altitude research plane available to the disaster-recovery team responsible for containing hazardous leakage at the California Gulch Superfund site in Leadville Colorado The ER-2 plane a U-2 spy plane adapted for civilian use captured thousands of measurements per second and its spectrometer mapped hundreds of square miles during each reconnaissance flight Scientists used NASArsquos plane to map minerals and other substances to help them detect the location of acid leaks from mines and heavy-metal contamination Officials estimated that the ER-2 planersquos identification of contaminated areas had saved cleanup agencies about one year and more than US$50000054

11 April The US Space Foundation inducted into its Space Technology Hall of Fame three technologies that NASA had originally developed for its astronauts antishock trousers flame-retardant seat materials and the radiation barrier The Space Foundation recognized the technologies as pathbreaking discoveries that had enhanced the quality of life on Earth Scientists and engineers at Ames Research Center had developed the first two technologies and members of the Apollo program at Johnson Space Center (JSC) had discovered the radiation barrier NASA employees had often referred to the dual use of its technologies as spin-offs recognizing that such inventions served to validate the expenditure of taxpayersrsquo funds on NASArsquos research projects According to a NASA spokesperson the technologies ldquoare not merely secondary applications

52 NASA ldquoFirst X-rays from a Comet Discoveredrdquo new release 96-66 4 April 1996 John Noble Wilford ldquoScientists Seek Explanation for X-rays Seen from Cometrdquo New York Times 5 April 1996 53 Andy Pasztor ldquoRockwell Probe To Continue After Unit Pleads Guilty to Waste-Disposal Chargerdquo Wall Street Journal 9 April 1996 Mark Reed ldquoFirm Agrees To Pay Fine in Fatal Blastrdquo Los Angeles Times 9 April 1996 54 New York Times ldquoNASA Research Plane Aids in Waste Cleanuprdquo 9 April 1996

14


They provide direct quantifiable and invaluable benefits to the American taxpayer and the domestic economyrdquo The US Space Foundation made the inductions at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs Colorado The Foundation had inducted 25 technologies into the Hall of Fame since the establishment of the awards in 198855

12 April NASA and the scientific community celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Space Shuttle program NASA had adopted the Shuttle as a means of controlling the costs of exploring space However NASA conceded that since its deployment the Shuttle had flown only nine times per year compared with the 24 to 60 Shuttle flights per year anticipated Furthermore the cost of flying the Shuttle had reached almost US$500000 more per mission than expected During its first 15 years the Shuttles had flown 76 missions including 51 following the Challenger accident The Shuttles had transported 545 tons (490000 kilograms or 490 tonnes) of payloads to space bringing back to Earth 185 tons (17000 kilograms or 17 tonnes) of payloads During the same period 440 astronauts from 12 countries flew aboard the Shuttles NASA experts predicted that the Shuttle would remain the primary vehicle of space exploration well into the 21st

century56

NASA completed the first step in its transition to using a single contractor to conduct all Shuttle operations signing two novation agreements with the newly formed United Space Alliance (USA) NASA had announced in 1995 that it would consolidate its Shuttle operations under a single contract with USA on a noncompetitive basis When Rockwell International Corporation and Lockheed Martin Corporation developed USA as a joint venture the two companies already held nearly 70 percent of the dollar value of all Shuttle-related contracts NASA officials expected that the move to a single contract would reduce costs by eliminating duplicative work and streamlining management57

15 April NASA disclosed the startling discoveries of Rice University astronomer C Robert OrsquoDell and graduate student Kerry P Handron who had used images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope to pinpoint thousands of gigantic tadpole-shaped objects surrounding a dying star the first time that scientists had observed the forms in such abundance The scientists hypothesized that the final outbursts of the dying star probably caused the gaseous knots each several billion miles across OrsquoDell concluded that if a dying star caused the gaseous knots then trillions of these forms might litter the universe58

With funding from NASArsquos Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications and the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station researchers at Utah State University successfully developed a strain of wheat suitable for growth in space The space wheat called USU-Apogee produced a yield equivalent to 600 bushels of grain per acre (21000 liters of grain per 4100 square meters) a rate three times more than the rate achieved in previous experiments

55 NASA ldquoNASA Life-Saving Technologies Enter Space Hall of Famerdquo news release 96-69 10 April 1996 56 Martin Burkey ldquoA Lean Mean Teen Shuttle Turns 15rdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 13 April 1996 Seth Borenstein ldquoCostly History Dogs Shuttle on Anniversaryrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 12 April 1996 57 NASA ldquoShuttle Contracts Take First Step Toward Consolidationrdquo news release 96-73 12 April 1996 58 NASA ldquoHubble Finds Thousands of Gaseous Fragments Around Starrdquo news release 96-74 15 April 1996

15


Researchers had worked for more than a decade developing the wheat During the tests USU-Apogee had thrived under the difficult conditions of artificial sunlight and high levels of carbon dioxide In conditions approximating the environment in space the wheat grew on short stalks produced an unusually large number of seeds and maintained green leaf tips (reflecting proper calcium levels) Scientists hoped that astronauts would be able to grow the wheat in the future International Space Station as a more economical means of providing food for long-term space residents than frequent Shuttle supply missions59

17 April NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin informed employees that NASA Headquarters in Washington DC would reduce its staff by more than 50 percent citing ldquoincreasing budget pressuresrdquo Under the reduction plan staff at NASA Headquarters would decrease from 1430 to between 650 and 700 in less than one yearrsquos time The Clinton administration had continued to push for government-wide budget cutbacks throughout the 1990s Don Fuqua President of the Aerospace Industries Association described the staff reduction as a case of the federal government following the example of the private sector According to Fuqua before NASA decided to reorganize most commercial aerospace business had already reorganized for greater efficiency60

18 April Chinese scientists attending a conference under the direction of the World Monuments Fund announced that space radar images had allowed them to locate and study two ancient previously undetectable sections of the Great Wall of China Spaceborne Imaging Radar CX-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar aboard Shuttle Endeavourrsquos Mission STS-59 produced the images in 1994 Diane L Evans a scientist at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory called the discovery an unexpected benefit of NASArsquos research ldquoArchaeology wasnrsquot one of our original science objectives but the imaging radar data has been found to be very useful for this type of researchrdquo Because the radar images penetrated vegetation and loose sand archaeologists were able to use the images to explore the site without excavation The radar images revealed sections of the wall built in two different periods⎯one during the Ming Dynasty and the other during the Sui Dynasty61

23 April Russia successfully launched the 21-ton (19000-kilogram or 19-tonne) Priroda module the last major component of the aging Mir space station aboard a robotic rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Russian scientists designed the Priroda module primarily as a laboratory for observing Earth The module also contained equipment for NASA astronaut Shannon W Lucidrsquos stay aboard the station NASA officials at JSC monitored the launch Priroda carried a magnetically levitated experiment platform a spectrometer and a ldquoglove boxrdquo

59 NASA ldquoUtah State University Develops Space Croprdquo news release 96-75 15 April 1996 60 NASA ldquoAdditional Personnel Reductions Planned for Agency Headquartersrdquo news release 96-76 17 April 1996 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNASA Speeds Up Downsizingrdquo Washington Post 18 April 1996 Mike Causey ldquoNASA To Lighten Pay Loadrdquo Washington Post 18 April 1996 Warren Ferster and Jennifer Heronema ldquoNASA Cuts Headquarters Jobs Deeper Fasterrdquo Space News 22minus28 April 1996 4minus5 61 NASA ldquoSpace Radar Reveals Ancient Segments of Chinarsquos Great Wallrdquo news release 96-77 18 April 1996 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Found Lost Sections of the Great Wall in rsquo94rdquo 22 April 1996

16


allowing astronauts to handle potentially hazardous material The module was the sixth major portion of the Mir complex launched by Russia since the Soviet Union began the project in 1986 Budget shortfalls in the Russian space program had caused some concern that the final module might not reach Mir as planned62

24 April Without holding any subcommittee hearings on the matter the US House Committee on Science and Technology voted to trim NASArsquos budget for 1997 by US$450 million NASA operated under a US$138 billion budget in 1996 Most of the cuts were from the budget of the initiative Mission to Planet Earth63

30 April Harry C Holloway resigned from his post as NASA Associate Administrator for the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications Holloway was the first person to hold the appointment after Administrator Daniel S Goldin created the position in March 1993 Holloway planned to return to the School of Medicine at Uniformed Services University During his tenure Holloway had established programs to conduct experimental studies in orbit and instituted the strategic plan for the Human Exploration and Development of Space Holloway had been instrumental in strengthening ties between NASA and the National Institutes of Health overseeing the signing of 10 agreements between the two agencies64

At the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society astronomers working with NASArsquos Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) spacecraft announced the discovery of the fastest vibrations ever recorded in a star system The vibrations occur when massive neutron stars begin to die out expelling the outer layers of their solid crusts and creating powerful x-rays The astronomers working with the RXTE recorded x-rays flickering at up to 1130 times per second Scientists were unsure why this process occurred According to NASA ldquothe possibility that the RXTE has detected actual waves in neutron stars or a very fast rotation period of one such star is of great scientific interestrdquo65

MAY 1996

1 May NASA announced its 1996 astronaut candidate class which included the first set of identical twins ever selected⎯Mark E Kelly and Scott J Kelly The sibling US Navy pilots joined 33 other astronauts in the class NASA selected 10 pilots and 25 mission specialists from an applicant pool of more than 2400 candidates including members of the US Army Air Force Coast Guard Marine Corps and Navy Six members of the class held PhDs in their respective fields and one was an MD NASA selected the astronaut class the largest in nearly 20 years

62 Mark Carreau ldquoRussia Launches Final Major Mir Componentrdquo Houston Chronicle 24 April 1996 63 Brett Davis ldquoPanel Sets $450 Million NASA Budget Cutrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 25 April 1996 64 NASA ldquoScience Head To Leave NASArdquo news release 96-80 30 April 1996 65 NASA ldquoNASA Spacecraft Discovers Fastest Stellar Vibrations Yetrdquo news release 96-81 30 April 1996 Associated Press ldquoNASA Instrument Detects Fastest Vibrations Yet Seen in Universerdquo 30 April 1996

17


from 16 different states in addition one astronaut candidate had been born in Argentina and another in the United Kingdom66

2 May Joseph B Gurman of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center announced the pathbreaking discoveries of a team of scientists monitoring the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft According to Gurman SOHO had revealed unexpected activity on the Sun as well as the best images yet of the plume-like structures extending from the Sun SOHOrsquos scientists were excited and surprised to find that ldquomovies made from SOHO ultraviolet data show that there is continuous motion and action everywhere on the Sunrdquo The scientists observed that the Sunrsquos plumes extend more than 13 million miles (21 million kilometers) into space NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) collaborated on the SOHO project67

Former US Representative Norman Y Mineta received NASArsquos Distinguished Service Medal the highest civilian honor awarded by NASA Mineta had served 21 years in the US Congress representing Californiarsquos Silicon Valley in the House of Representatives As chairperson of the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation he had played a vital role in bolstering the nationrsquos transportation infrastructure and fostering technological research Mineta remarked that serving over the long term as the senior member of the House Committee on Science and Technology had given him the opportunity to see firsthand NASArsquos significant achievements When he accepted the award at a private ceremony Mineta said ldquoIrsquom deeply honored to be recognized by NASA for any contributions I made furthering the mission of our nationrsquos space operationsrdquo68

3 May NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft discovered a giant iron core taking up half of the diameter of Jupiterrsquos moon Io as well as a large hole in Jupiterrsquos magnetic field Galileo Project Scientist Torrence V Johnson of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) identified Io as the most ldquogeographically active body in the [s]olar [s]ystemrdquo Galileo scientists also measured the intense heat Jupiter generates noting that the planet has a massive gravity field Galileo managed to come within 559 miles (900 kilometers) of Jupiter during its 1995 flyby allowing scientists to locate the iron core and the hole in the magnetic field Although they were still grappling with the significance of the ldquocompletely unexpected findsrdquo scientists reported their early analysis of the data in Science magazine69

10 May At Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) NASA announced that it had taken a major step forward in preparations for the International Space Station (ISS) the stationrsquos air purification system had passed a month-long test NASA scientists tested the ISSrsquos air pressure and the ability of its air system to regulate the mixture of carbon dioxide and oxygen that the astronauts

66 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Astronaut Class of 1996rdquo news release 96-84 1 May 1996 Marcia Dunn ldquoIn NASA First Identical Twins Selected for Astronaut Corpsrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 2 May 1996 67 NASA ldquoUnexpectedly Active Sun and New Insights into Solar Plumes Foundrdquo news release 96-87 2 May 1996 68 US Newswire ldquoNorman Y Mineta Receives NASArsquos Distinguished Service Medalrdquo 2 May 1996 69 J D Anderson W L Sjogren and G Schubert ldquoGalileo Gravity Results and the Internal Structure of Lordquo Science 272 no 5262 (3 May 1996) 709minus712 NASA ldquoGalileo Finds Giant Iron Core in Jupiterrsquos Moon Iordquo news release 96-89 3 May 1996

18


would breathe In the simulation scientists used a 6200-cubic-foot (176-cubic-meter) module from which they had removed the oxygen The air system not only proved it could maintain the proper levels of both oxygen and carbon dioxide but also performed satisfactorily at a reduced power level Engineers hoped to reduce the power level of the ISS during its nighttime orbit The system called the Atmosphere Revitalization Subsystem demonstrated that it could provide healthy working and living conditions for the astronauts on board the ISS70

15 May NASA and the ESA made available images taken of Comet Hyakutake as it approached the Sun The US Naval Research Laboratory had captured the pictures during the appearance of the comet in late April 1996 The Naval Research Laboratory had built a special instrument⎯the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO)⎯to record the images Operating aboard SOHO LASCO suppressed the glare of the Sun exposing the comet and its tails In addition the instrument produced the equivalent of a time-lapse movie of Hyakutake thereby documenting the cometrsquos tails as they changed direction in reaction to the Sunrsquos forces LASCO also allowed scientists to observe coronal mass ejections⎯the expulsion of hot gases Researchers used the data to learn more about how comets interact with the Sun and about the behavior of comet tails71

17 May Peter H Diamandis President of Angel Technologies Corporation an aerospace firm located in St Louis Missouri offered a US$10 million prize to the first private aviators to complete a suborbital flight into space Diamandis stated that the object of the prize was to motivate private companies to invest in space exploration someday making spaceflights open to the public ldquoWersquore looking to spark a constructive competitionrdquo Diamandis explained To claim the prize the privately financed and built aircraft would have to ascend to 62 miles (100 kilometers) high twice within a period of two weeks delivering three passengers safely to space and back Diamandis claimed that creating an entirely reusable Space Shuttle would considerably decrease the cost of going to space opening the space frontier to people who had not trained as professional astronauts Diamandis intended to announce the winner of the ldquoX Prizerdquo on 18 May beneath the St Louis Gateway Arch Creator of the Voyager and top contender for the prize Burt Rutan as well as NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin planned to attend the award

72ceremony

19 May Shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida on Mission STS-77 scheduled to last 10 days John H Casper making his fourth spaceflight commanded the crew and Curtis L Brown Jr piloted the Shuttle Four mission specialists Daniel W Bursch Marc Garneau Mario Runco Jr and Andrew S W Thomas completed the flight crew NASA planned various science experiments for the mission including deployment of a retrievable satellite to test the feasibility of using satellites with inflatable parts NASArsquos Office of Space Access and Technology sponsored most of the payloads aboard Endeavour The Shuttle also carried a privately developed SPACEHAB module holding nearly 3000 pounds

70 NASA ldquoSpace Station Air Purification System Completes Major Testrdquo news release 10 May 1996 71 NASA ldquoSOHO Images Comet Hyakutakersquos Close Encounter with the Sunrdquo news release 15 May 1996 72 Paul Hoversten ldquoA Space Race with a Lofty Goal Cashrdquo USA Today 17 May 1996

19


(1400 kilograms) of science experiments NASA had contracted with SPACEHAB Inc in 1990 to construct research laboratories Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau was making his second trip into space73

20 May Endeavourrsquos crew successfully tested a giant inflatable antenna deploying the structure and gathering data during its orbit Project Manager Steven Bard a NASA scientist at JPL called the successful test a giant step toward developing lightweight cost-effective equipment for space research The silver inflatable antenna about the size of a tennis court cost US$14 million to develop The Shuttle astronauts used the Shuttlersquos robotic arm to launch the small satellite carrying the antenna The crew situated Endeavour about 400 feet (122 meters) immediately above the antenna to observe its behavior after deployment but when the antenna made some unexpected tumbling rotations the astronauts moved the Shuttle to a safer distance After completing the test the astronauts set off a series of small explosions to cut loose the antenna Before the mission began NASA officials had determined that deflating and recapturing the antenna would be too risky and costly to attempt74

21 May The Boeing Company Honeywell Space Systems and the S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia) based in Kaliningrad Russia announced a new venture to reduce significantly the cost and time involved in transporting payloads to the Mir space station Boeing estimated that the service would save one year and would cut the cost of transporting a standard payload to space by at least US$7 million The three companies split duties to maximize efficiency Boeing assumed control of the overall management and payload-system integration Honeywell accepted responsibility for providing payload-interface units and payload-integration support and RSC Energia signed on to provide launch services and to oversee installation on Mir Decreasing the expenses involved in sustaining Mir had become urgent in the 1990s when both Russian and American space agencies had to respond to their governmentsrsquo respective budget cuts75

Scientists revealed that their analysis of the data from NASArsquos Galileo probe had offered new insights into Jupiterrsquos climate The probe found winds of 400 miles (640 kilometers) per hour extending about 10000 miles (16000 kilometers) from the planetrsquos core to its cloud top and producing storms that could last for centuries The findings indicated that heat at Jupiterrsquos core fueled the winds Galileo released a probe which parachuted 400 miles (640 kilometers) through Jupiterrsquos atmosphere to gather its data enduring temperatures ranging from -171degF to 305degF (shy113degC to 152degC) The probe exploded after gathering and transmitting the data76

73 Warren E Leary ldquoShuttle Begins 10-Day Technology Flightrdquo New York Times 20 May 1996 NASA ldquoSpace Commercialization and Technology Demonstrations Highlight Shuttle Mission STS-77rdquo news release 96-83 May 1996 74 William Harwood ldquoInflatable Antenna Passes Testrdquo Washington Post 21 May 1996 Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttle Deploys Giant Antennardquo Washington Times 21 May 1996 75 The Boeing Company ldquoBoeing Honeywell and Energia Join in Offering New Commercial Payload Service to Russian Space Stationrdquo news release 21 May 1996 76 Paul Hoversten ldquoJupiterrsquos Winds 10000-Mile-Deep lsquoGiant Flywheelrsquordquo USA Today 22 May 1996 NASA ldquoGalileo Probe Data Spurs New Concepts for Jupiterrsquos Circulation and Formationrdquo news release 96-103 21 May 1996

20


22 May The trend of commercializing space exploration continued as Pepsi-Cola Company announced the companyrsquos plan to use Russian cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station to record the first TV advertisement filmed in space PepsiCo planned to record images of a giant replica of a Pepsi can in space PepsiCorsquos Chief Marketing Officer Massimo F drsquoAmore called space ldquothe ultimate frontier of global marketingrdquo The Russian Space Agency expected to receive nearly US$5 million for the advertising stunt providing a welcome infusion of cash for the struggling postcommunist space program In response to its competitorrsquos advertisement plans the Coca-Cola Company furnished Endeavourrsquos Mission STS-77 with a soda dispenser equipped for use in space The machine cost Coca-Cola Company US$15 million to develop77

23 May NASA revealed that the joint US-Italian team investigating the failure of the Italian tethered satellite system (TSS) had determined that the tether experiment conducted aboard Mission STSshy75 had revealed numerous fundamental flaws in space physics and plasma theories The TSS experiment had ended with the tether breaking before reaching its full 13-mile (21-kilometer) length The scientists concluded that a number of theoretical models widely accepted for as long as 30 years were incorrect and in need of revision According to Noble Stone a NASA scientist at MSFC the teamrsquos most significant finding was that tether current flows between the satellite and the orbiter were three times greater than theoretical models had predicted Because the amount of power generated was directly proportionate to the current the harnessed energy had the potential to furnish thrust for rebooting a space station satellite or shuttle in a decaying orbit Stone suggested that tether systems might some day supplement solar arrays as sources of power for long-term space platforms78

29 May Shuttle Endeavour made a smooth sunrise landing at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida bringing to its close a fruitful 10-day research mission The Shuttle crew celebrated their record achievement of 21 hours flying in close proximity to the satellites they had released NASA planned to move Endeavour to Palmdale California for refurbishing79

31 May A team of NASA and university researchers announced the discovery of large quantities of ethane and methane gases in Comet Hyakutake the first time scientists had detected such gases in a comet The discovery led researchers to postulate that at least two basic types of comets exist If validated by further research the hypothesis would have significant ramifications for scientific theories regarding the formation of the Sun and planets Michael J Mumma the lead researcher on the project called the discovery of ethane in the comet ldquoa blinding surpriserdquo The

77 Melanie Well ldquoPepsi Coke Go into Orbitrdquo USA Today 22 May 1996 78 NASA ldquoEarly Findings from Tethered Satellite Mission Point to Revamping of Space Physics Theoriesrdquo news release 96-106 23 May 1996 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center ldquoFall Science Meeting Highlights Tether Satellite Resultsrdquo httpspacesciencespacerefcomnewhomeheadlinesast15oct96_1htm (accessed 27 October 2008) 79 Stefanie Asin ldquoWelcome Back Endeavour Shuttle Lands at Kennedy Space Center After 10-Day Missionrdquo Houston Chronicle 30 May 1996

21


team of researchers included Karen Magee-Sauer of Rowan College New Jersey and NASA scientists Neil Dello Russo David X Xie and Charles Kaminski80

JUNE 1996

4 June NASA and the Italian Space Agency released the investigative report on the failed tethered satellite system (TSS) experiment conducted during Shuttle Columbiarsquos Mission STS-75 in February 1996 The 358-page report produced by a board established to investigate the incident concluded that a breach in the layer of insulation surrounding the tether conductor possibly the result of contact with debris led to the failure According to the report the breach in insulation allowed an electrical current to jump from a copper wire in the tether to an electrical ground causing the breakage ldquothe tether failed as a result of arcing and burning of the tether leading to a tensile failure after a significant portion of the tether had burned awayrdquo The board noted that NASA scientists had already announced findings regarding tether current and voltage measurements concluding that the unexpected breakage of Columbiarsquos tethered satellite did not indicate any fundamental problem with the concept of the TSS Furthermore the board recommended that during future experiments scientists should take greater precautions to ensure that neither debris nor high-voltage arcing compromised the tetherrsquos strength81

Arianespace the commercial arm of the European Space Agency suffered a major setback in its bid to maintain control of the satellite-launching market in the face of competition from US companies Only seconds after the launch of Ariane 5 a huge rocket intended to launch satellites Arianespace had to blow up the rocket when it veered severely off course Arianespace had spent 10 years and more than US$7 billion to develop the 674-foot (205-meter) 821-ton (750000shykilogram or 750-tonne) vehicle Also lost in the explosion were satellites valued at more than US$500 million Arianespace had projected a launch reliability of 985 percent for the rocket considering failure so unlikely that the company had guaranteed a free launch to customers if the launch failed A spokesperson for Arianespace acknowledged the disappointment of the failed test but promised that the company would continue as the worldrsquos leader in launching satellites Aerospace industry analysts predicted that US companies such as Lockheed Martin would likely gain an increased foothold in the market because of the European companyrsquos misfortune82

7 June The experimental DC-XA flight vehicle completed a successful test flight flying nearly 2000 feet (610 meters) above the desert of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and landing safely NASA researchers and administrators hoped that the rocket would one day replace the Space Shuttle as the primary means of space exploration The reusable unpiloted rocket taking off and landing from a vertical position would cut significantly the costs of delivering payloads into orbit NASA announced that the vehicle had been renamed Clipper Graham in honor of

80 NASA ldquoChemical Measurements of Comet Hyakutake Suggest a New Class of Cometsrdquo news release 96-108 31 May 1996 81 NASA ldquoTethered Satellite Investigation Report Releasedrdquo news release 96-112 4 June 1996 Reuters ldquoDamaged Insulation Ruined Test in Spacerdquo 5 June 1996 Associated Press ldquoStudy Finds Metal Debris Punctured Tether Pulled by Satelliterdquo 5 June 1996 82 Kathleen Day ldquoLosing a Rocket and a Satellite Edgerdquo Washington Post 5 June 1996 Craig Whitney ldquoCostly Failure Space Launch Is Abortedrdquo New York Times 5 June 1996

22


Lieutenant General Daniel O Graham Graham who died on 31 December 1995 had served as an advisor to President Ronald Reagan and had been an early proponent for the development of reusable rockets Administrator Daniel S Goldin expressed optimism that NASA would be able to replace the Shuttle with the DC-XA flight vehicle ldquoWe are going to fly the [S]huttle safely until we can replace it But by God we are going to replace the [S]huttlerdquo83

10 June A team of astronomers announced at the American Astronomical Society convention that they had discovered ordinary vinegar in a stellar cloud 25000 light-years away from Earth The presence of an organic molecule which may have played a role in the formation of life excited scientists ldquoAcetic acid could have been one of the first steps toward the chemicals of liferdquo explained Lewis E Snyder a member of the research team that made the discovery Scientists had discovered complex molecules in space before but formic acid discovered in 1975 was the only other basic molecule detected before the discovery of the vinegar84

12 June Kennedy Space Center (KSC) scientists began the most comprehensive testing to date on how plants produce food and oxygen in space The experiment part of NASArsquos development of a Controlled Ecological Life Support System called for the analysis of 128 potato plants and 6500 wheat seeds NASA scientists planned for the study to last from one to three years NASA agricultural engineer John Sager praising NASArsquos earlier success in producing crop species for space explained the experimentrsquos significance ldquoIf we plan to live in space we must determine if this system will be as successful over longer periods of timerdquo Scientists were using KSCrsquos Biomass Production Chamber to test the crops in a space-like environment NASA had begun in 1987 to test strains of crops and plants for their ability to produce oxygen and food in

85space

13 June The Smithsonian Institution named former US Navy pilot and aviation executive Donald D Engen as Director of the National Air and Space Museum Engen succeeded Martin O Harwit who had resigned amidst criticism of an exhibition about the Enola Gay atomic bomb mission Some World War II veterans had deemed the exhibition too sympathetic to Japan and some members of Congress had faulted the National Air and Space Museum for deviating from its mission of exhibiting the history of the United Statesrsquo aeronautical achievements Smithsonian employees praised Engenrsquos appointment suggesting that he would restore the museumrsquos credibility86

19 June The US Space Walk of Fame based in Titusville Florida recognized with a two-day celebration the 20000 men and women who worked on the Gemini space program NASA had

83 NASA ldquoRevolutionary New Launch Vehicle Renamed for Space Pioneerrdquo news release 96-114 7 June 1996 Associated Press ldquoReusable Rocket Ends Flightrdquo 7 June 1996 84 John Noble Wilford ldquoWhiff of Organic Stuff Found Between Starsrdquo New York Times 11 June 1996 Associated Press ldquoVinegar Found in Far Away Spacerdquo 11 June 1996 85 NASA ldquoNASA Begins Study on Reliability of Space Life Support Systemrdquo news release 96-120 12 June 1996 86 Rowan Scarborough ldquoEngen To Head Air and Spacerdquo Washington Times 13 June 1996

23


launched 10 Gemini missions between 1965 and 1966 each spacecraft carrying two astronauts Many staff members and astronauts involved in the Gemini program went on to work on the Apollo Moon program Gemini astronauts included Neil A Armstrong Jim Lovell and Edwin E ldquoBuzzrdquo Aldrin Jr The event organizers celebrated the achievements of the Gemini missions in addition to raising funds to establish a permanent monument to the Gemini program87

20 June Shuttle Columbia lifted off from KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida embarking upon Mission STS-78 The Shuttle carried US astronauts Terrence T Henricks Kevin R Kregel Richard M Linnehan Susan J Helms and Charles E Brady Jr French astronaut Jean-Jacques Favier and Canadian astronaut Robert B Thrisk NASA planned to use an orbiting research laboratory to conduct a variety of experiments during the mission In addition to its human cargo the Shuttle transported the payload for the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences used to conduct research on musculoskeletal physiology and on the responses of living organisms to a low-gravity environment88

21 June Russian officials announced that the necessity of cutting costs at the Russian Space Agency had caused a 40-day delay in returning cosmonauts Yuri I Onufrienko and Yury V Usachev from the Mir space station to Earth Russian budget cuts had slowed the production of the Soyuz booster rockets needed to fuel a return trip for the cosmonauts Because Mir was deteriorating Russia could not leave it without a crew This was the second time that financial and technical difficulties had led Russia to delay the return of the two men The episode signaled a deepening crisis for the Russian space program the United Statesrsquo key partner in building the International Space Station (ISS)89

24 June Astronauts aboard Shuttle Columbia conducted an overnight experiment on the effects of space travel on the bodyrsquos biological clock Four astronauts slept with special caps equipped with electrodes to monitor their brain and muscle activity Astronauts in space have no exposure to the once-daily rising and setting Sun which helps trigger a regular sleep pattern on Earth In space the Sun rises and sets more than a dozen times each ldquodayrdquo NASA administrators planned the experiment because they recognized the value of restful sleep for astronauts working in space and were concerned that sleep loss would become a greater disadvantage the longer an astronaut stayed in space With the ISS on the horizon NASA researchers considered the possible effects on astronauts of record-setting stays in space a significant issue ldquoSleep disruption is something that has to be taken seriouslyrdquo said Timothy H Monk the lead researcher on the project90

26 June

87 Marilyn Meyer ldquoHistory-Making Gemini Team To Reuniterdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 8 June 1996 88 NASA ldquoLife and Microgravity Science Research Highlight Shuttle Mission STS-78rdquo news release 96-116 June 1996 NASA Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 1996 Activities (Washington DC 1997) p 103 89 USA Today ldquoRussian Cosmonautsrdquo 24 June 1996 Associated Press ldquoMoscowrdquo 21 June 1996 90 Reuters ldquoShuttle Mission Probes Body Clockrdquo 24 June 1996

24


Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) identified what they believed to be the most distant objects observed to date Researchers based at State University of New York at Stony Brook found several dozen galaxies so far away that they might have existed when the universe was less than 5 percent of its present age The team of astronomers made its calculations on the distances of the galaxies from the Earth by relying on the relationship between speed and distance in the expanding universe According to the scientific understanding of the speed-distance relationship ldquothe expansion of the universe causes the light from distant galaxies to be lsquoredshiftedrsquordquo meaning that because of the expansion of space light leaving a distant galaxy as blue arrives at the HST as red light The redshifting phenomenon allows researchers to tentatively measure the distance the light has traveled Noting that other factors such as dust also might make a galaxyrsquos light red Mark E Dickinson of the Space Telescope Science Institute categorized the study as ldquoenticingrdquo but also clarified ldquoitrsquos not a proofrdquo91

27 June NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft completed a flyby of Jupiterrsquos largest moon Ganymede passing only 519 miles (835 kilometers) above the moonrsquos surface NASA had equipped Galileo with 10 scientific instruments to gather data from the expedition The instruments began making measurements on 23 June as the probe approached Ganymede Images revealed an icy surface with bright clean ice covering part of the moon and darker dirty ice covering the rest This was the first data gathered during a collection mission planned for 1996 and 1997 in which Galileo would pass Ganymede before completing 11 orbits of Jupiter and surveying the planetrsquos other moons NASA monitored Galileorsquos progress through its Deep Space Network using control stations in California Spain and Australia Scientists and engineers at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory had built the Galileo spacecraft92

JULY 1996

2 July NASA successfully launched its Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) aboard the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite via an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base A jet flying roughly 7 miles above the California coast released the rocket that was carrying the satellite placing the TOMS-EP in a successful orbit The McMurdo Sound Tracking Station in Antarctica acquired the satellite almost immediately and determined that the spacecraft was functioning properly After it reached a circular orbit the TOMS-EP was ready to conduct its scientific mission93

Paul F Holloway Director of Langley Research Center (LARC) in Hampton Virginia announced his retirement Holloway had served at LARC for his entire aerospace career beginning in 1960 He became the Centerrsquos Director in 1991 overseeing 4500 employees and a budget of more than US$600 million During his tenure Holloway published 42 technical articles in the fields of hypersonic aerodynamics boundary layer transition and flow separation

91 Associated Press ldquoHubble Scope Peers into Universersquos Past with Aid of Starlightrdquo 27 June 1996 NASA ldquoFindings from Hubble Deep Field Home in on Distant Galaxiesrdquo news release 96-123 26 June 199692 NASA ldquoGalileo Readies for Close Flyby of Jupiterrsquos Biggest Moonrdquo news release 96-122 June 1996 93 NASA ldquoPegasusTOMS Launch Successful from Vandenberg AFBrdquo news release 2 July 1996 Associated Press ldquoBRFmdashSatellite Launchrdquo 2 July 1996

25


analysis of entry flight mechanics and Earth orbital and planetary space missions NASA awarded Holloway its Outstanding Leadership Medal Exceptional Service Medal Distinguished Service Medal and Equal Employment Opportunity Medal Holloway also received the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Service and two Senior Executive Service Distinguished Presidential Rank Awards NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin summarized Hollowayrsquos contributions to NASA saying that his ldquocareer spans almost the entire history of the Space Age and his many achievements at Langley are a tribute to his talent his professionalism and his dedication to the importance of NASA aeronautical programsrdquo94

Lockheed Martin won the contract to design and build the X-33 test vehicle a scaled-down model of the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) that NASA planned as an eventual replacement for the Space Shuttle NASA set a budget of US$941 million for the project In announcing the new contract Administrator Daniel S Goldin expressed NASArsquos high hopes for the project ldquoWe want to develop technologies that will allow industry to build a vehicle that takes days not months to turnaround dozens not thousands of people to operate reliability ten times better than anything flying today and launch costs that are a tenth of what they are now Our goal is a reusable launch vehicle that will cut the cost of sending a pound of payload to orbit from [US]$10000 to [US]$1000rdquo Lockheed planned to invest US$220 million in the RLV project The X-33 plan built upon the successful engineering of the Clipper Graham (DC-XA) launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico The agreement between NASA and Lockheed Martin split the risk between government and industry Although NASA passed over Rockwell International for the contract Rockwell designed the vehiclersquos engine95

4 July Reuters News Service published an internal NASA memorandum written by an independent safety commission the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel cautioning NASA against cutting the budget for the Shuttle program too quickly According to the panelrsquos analysis NASArsquos attempts to reduce costs by conducting fewer Shuttle safety inspections and by transferring responsibility for day-to-day operations of the Shuttle program to United Space Alliance had demoralized NASArsquos workforce at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) The memo made clear the opinion of the safety inspectors ldquoOverall it was the clear consensus of the team that a cooling off period is absolutely necessary if KSC operations are to continue safely without this hiatus the safety risk is likely unacceptablerdquo96

5 July In a study released in the journal Science Charles P Sonett detailed the results of his research measuring changes in the motion of Earth Sonett reported that tidal forces from the gravitational force of the Moon had caused the Earthrsquos rotation to slow gradually over a period of millions of years About 900 million years ago according to Sonett the length of the Earthrsquos day was only

94 NASA ldquoNASA Langley Director Paul F Holloway To Step Downrdquo news release 96-127 2 July 1996 95 NASA ldquoLockheed Martin Selected To Build X-33rdquo news release 96-128 2 July 1996 Jeff Cole ldquoLockheed Wins $1 Billion Pact for the Shuttlerdquo Wall Street Journal 3 July 1996 Curt Suplee and Steven Pearlstein ldquoLockheed Martin Gets Spacecraft Projectrdquo Washington Post 3 July 1996 96 Reuters ldquoWarning Light for NASArsquos Shuttle ProgrammdashMemordquo 4 July 1996

26


about 18 hours The gravitational pull of the Moon Sonett explained ldquoacts like a brake on the Earthrdquo97

7 July Shuttle Columbia landed at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida ending the longest Space Shuttle mission ever The mission lasting nearly 17 days set a new space endurance record for the crew The astronauts had bested their previous record by nearly 7 hours Columbia had carried into space a torch for the 1996 Olympic relay and upon landing two members of the crew joined the Olympic torch relay team in a special ceremony The astronauts had overcome several small malfunctions to conduct the successful mission and land the Shuttle on time Less than 2 hours before the Shuttlersquos scheduled arrival the crew had discovered a clogged cooling line but the astronauts were able to flush ice from the system to clear the line In addition the mission brought to light a potential ongoing problem for Columbia In studying the launch NASA officials had observed gas and flames issuing from the rocket boosters probably through the O-ring joints used to connect the boosterrsquos fuel segments Although Columbiarsquos crew was not in danger NASA officials decided that the Shuttle would not launch again until scientists had determined how well the new water-based adhesive would function under extreme heat NASA had discontinued the adhesive used previously on the rocket boosters because the adhesive was an ozone-depleting agent98

9 July NASA announced the recipients of the 1996 Software of the Year Award honoring those individuals who had created software enhancing NASArsquos mission and the US aerospace industry Linked Windows Interactive Data System developed by NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Tetrahedral Unstructured Software System developed by LARC won the 1996 awards The former system allowed scientists to examine geophysical and climatological data gathered from satellites and the latter aided researchers in studying problems with ldquospacecraft rotorcraft automotive turbomachinery and medical analysis and designrdquo99

14 July NASA announced the six-week delay of astronaut Shannon W Lucidrsquos return from her outpost aboard the Mir space station NASA made the schedule change because of concerns about the reliability of the joint sealant used on the Shuttlersquos reusable rocket boosters during the June launch of Columbia NASA planned to replace the booster before launching Atlantis scheduled to retrieve Lucid The reusable rocket boosters packed with fuel launch the Shuttle After pushing the Shuttle into space the boosters fall off and descend attached to parachutes into the ocean Upon retrieving the rocket boosters engineers disassemble them into smaller pieces repack them with fuel and rebuild them for a new Shuttle launch sealing each of the rocketrsquos three field joints with an O-ring NASA sought to fortify these joints further and the adhesive used to secure them before launching another Shuttle mission Space Shuttle Program Manager

97 C P Sonett et al ldquoLate Proterozoic and Paleozoic Tides Retreat of the Moon and Rotation of the Earthrdquo Science 273 no 5271 (5 July 1996) 100minus104 Associated Press ldquoAstrodynamics A Brake on the Earthrsquos Spinrdquo 8 July 1996 98 William Harwood ldquoRecord Shuttle Flight Ends Problem May Delay Next Launchrdquo Washington Post 8 July 1996 Associated Press ldquoColumbia Ends 17-Day Missionrdquo 8 July 1996 99 NASA ldquoNASA Announces 1996 Software of the Year Award Recipientsrdquo news release 9 July 1996

27


Thomas W Holloway stated that NASA remained confident in the overall design of the rocket booster and in the joint but wanted to take no avoidable risks100

15 July Astronaut Shannon W Lucid established a new American record for the longest space mission Lucid conducted a news conference from the Mir space station marking her record of 115 days and 44 minutes which eclipsed the record of her predecessor aboard Mir Norman E Thagard With the changed date for the rendezvous between Shuttle Atlantis and Mir NASA predicted that Lucid would also break the record number of 170 days spent by a woman in space101

NASA named the crew members for Mission STS-84 the sixth scheduled docking mission between the Space Shuttle and Russiarsquos Mir space station NASA selected Charles J Precourt as Mission Commander and Eileen M Collins as Shuttle Pilot with Mission Specialists Edward T Lu and Carlos I Noriega and European Space Agency astronaut Jean-Franccedilois Clervoy rounding out the crew The scheduled Atlantis mission also included Mission Specialist C Michael Foale who planned to stay on Mir for four months102

18 July NASA released new images of Io one of Jupiterrsquos moons obtained by the Galileo spacecraft Michael J S Belton of the National Optical Astronomical Observatories pointed out that radical changes had occurred on the moon during the 17 years between Galileo and the first observation of Io via the Voyager spacecraft in 1979 According to Belton active volcanoes had altered the color of the moonrsquos surface forming deposits of sulfur and sulfur dioxide that painted the surface white103

20 July NASA commemorated the 20th anniversary of Viking 1rsquos landing on Mars the first time that a spacecraft had successfully descended to the surface of the planet NASA marked the occasion with an address from Administrator Daniel S Goldin and the celebration of Mars Day at the Smithsonian Institutionrsquos National Air and Space Museum Viking 1 had searched for life on Mars but at the end of its quest scientists had found no evidence of life on Mars As it celebrated its accomplishments NASA continued its efforts to learn more about Mars throughout its 20th anniversary year with the development of Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder104

22 July While constructing a piping trench two surveyors at NASArsquos LARC located the fossil remains of a 35 million-year-old 30-foot (9-meter) baleen whale The workers found the whalersquos skull tympanic bulla vertebrae and rib fragments Langley loaned the remains to the nearby College of William and Mary Gerald H Johnson a geologist at the College of William and Mary suggested that the discovery provided a clue to the history of the Langley site indicating that the

100 William J Broad ldquoAstronautrsquos Ride Home Is Delayed for 6 Weeksrdquo New York Times 13 July 1996 101 NASA ldquoShannon Lucid Breaks a Record The 20th Anniversary of the Viking Mission to Marsrdquo video advisory V96-84 15 July 1996 Associated Press ldquoWith One Record Down Shersquos Still Uprdquo 16 July 1996 102 NASA ldquoCrew Named to Sixth ShuttlendashMir Docking Missionrdquo news release 96-139 15 July 1996 103 NASA ldquoGalileo Finds Big Changes on Jupiterrsquos Volcanic Moon Iordquo news release 96-143 18 July 1996 104 NASA ldquoActivities Planned To Commemorate 20th Anniversary of First Mars Landingrdquo news release 96-141 15 July 1996

28


Atlantic shoreline probably used to be located 30minus40 miles (48minus64 kilometers) west of its present location105

24 July As Congress prepared to vote on NASArsquos budget Thomas J Shulz of the US General Accounting Office (GAO) testified before a US Senate committee that NASA would likely exceed its projected budget for constructing the International Space Station (ISS) and making it operational NASA refuted the claim GAOrsquos report suggested that NASA had made unrealistic cost estimates and that its system to monitor costs and schedule was inadequate The report also outlined GAOrsquos concerns about Russiarsquos continued commitment to the ISS endeavor Shulz testified that ldquoin a worst-case situation these issues could threaten the future of the program especially if they result in significantly higher cost estimates and substantial schedule delaysrdquo NASArsquos spokesperson on the issue Wilbur C Trafton defended NASArsquos projected budget and its relationship with Russia Trafton pointed out that Vice President Albert A Gore Jr and NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin had procured a new agreement during a July meeting in Russia indicating the solidity of the partnership between the United States and Russia GAOrsquos critique occurred against the backdrop of the continuing quest during the mid-1990s to make NASA more cost effective106

31 July NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced the appointment of Jeremiah F Creedon as Director of LARC Creedon succeeded Paul F Holloway who had served for 36 years at LARC With this appointment Creedon moved up from his position as LARCrsquos Director of the Airframe Systems Program Office to return to the research center where he had begun his engineering career 33 years earlier During his career at NASA Creedon had received the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive in the Senior Executive Service NASArsquos Outstanding Leadership Medal and the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive in Senior Executive Service107

AUGUST 1996

1 August The Boeing Company announced that it had purchased most of the aerospace and defense holdings of its competitor Rockwell International Corporation The US$3 billion deal restructured the two companies in drastically different ways permitting Boeing to increase significantly its potential to win government aerospace contracts while Rockwell International turned its attention to the lucrative commercial market in automation Whereas Boeing solidified its established dominance in the commercial jetliner construction business Rockwell left behind its signature industry⎯the company had been nearly synonymous with NASArsquos piloted space program However in the face of dwindling government contracts Rockwell had been concentrating for years on developing its commercial product lines Although the merger was not a surprise the sale of the company responsible for engineering the Apollo spacecraft and the B-1

105 NASA ldquoAncient Whale Surfaces at NASA Langleyrdquo news release 96-145 22 July 1996 106 William E Clayton Jr ldquoGAO Criticizes NASArsquos Estimate on Cost of Building Space Stationrdquo Houston Chronicle 25 July 1996 Larry Wheeler ldquoReport NASA Budget Much Too Rosyrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 25 July 1996 107 NASA ldquoDr Jeremiah Creedon Named Director Langley Research Centerrdquo news release 96-152 31 July 1996

29


bombers marked the end of an era in the aerospace industry The Wall Street Journal estimated that Boeingrsquos share of aerospace and defense revenues would increase to US$8minus9 billion annually108

NASA scientist Jay R Hermon published an article in Geophysical Research Letters claiming that he had used NASArsquos Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer spacecraft to demonstrate the dramatic increase between 1979 and 1992 of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching the Earthrsquos surface The article ldquoUV-B Increases (1979minus1992) from Decreases in Total Ozonerdquo explained that the ozone necessary to protect the Earth from the Sunrsquos harmful UV rays was declining Herman found that annual UV-B exposure had increased 68 percent per decade at 55ordm north latitude and 99 percent per decade at 55ordm south latitude Both latitudes had significant population centers that emitted harmful emissions destructive to the ozone layer109

2 August NASA and the US Air Force unveiled to the public an ldquointelligentrdquo aircraft using a computerized system to ldquolearn as it fliesrdquo Researchers had engineered the hypersonic aircraft to take inventory of flight maneuvers performed while operating under remote control eventually using its acquired knowledge to develop the capability to fly itself According to the flight researchers the aircraftrsquos control system would create a continually altering set of ldquocontrol lawsrdquo to optimize flight performance After the aircraft had perfected its system it could assist pilots in performing such tasks as landing partially damaged planes The intelligent aircraft could also enable flight at speeds and altitudes that human pilots could hardly ever achieve while still maintaining adequate control of an aircraft110

5 August NASA convened a five-member investigation board to determine the cause of the postlanding explosion of the Clipper Graham (DC-XA) rocket on 31 July 1996 The Clipper Graham had successfully flown a 2-minute 20-second flight profile but had tipped over and caught fire after landing when one of its four landing gears failed to deploy The DC-XA had tested successfully three times before the explosion destroyed it Former astronaut Vance Brand chaired the panel bringing together representatives from NASArsquos Dryden Flight Research Center Marshall Space Flight Center Langley Research Center and Kennedy Space Center Researchers hoped the investigation would illuminate any flaws in the Clipper Grahamrsquos design allowing engineers to make necessary adjustments in future prototypes111

7 August

108 The Boeing Company ldquoBoeing To Acquire Rockwell Aerospace and Defense Unitsrdquo news release 1 August 1996 NASA ldquoNASA Comment on Boeing Corporation Acquisition of Rockwell Aerospace and Defense Businessesrdquo news release N96-51 1 August 1996 Associated Press ldquoBoeing To Buy Rockwell Internationalrsquos Aerospace Holdingsrdquo 1 August 1996 James F Peltz ldquoRockwell To Sell Space and Defense Divisions to Boeingrdquo Los Angeles Times 2 August 1996 Jeff Cole and Steven Lipin ldquoBoeing Deal Will Strengthen Companyrdquo Wall Street Journal 2 August 1996 109 J R Herman et al ldquoUV-B Increases (1979minus1992) from Decreases in Total Ozonerdquo Geophysical Research Letters 23 no 16 (1996) 2117minus2120 NASA ldquoSurface Ultraviolet Radiation Levels Have Increased from 1979 to 1992rdquo news release 96-153 1 August 1996 110 NASA ldquoIntelligent Test Aircraft Unveiled in Wisconsin Todayrdquo news release 96-154 2 August 1996 111 NASA ldquoClipper Graham Incident Investigation Board Convenesrdquo news release 96-158 5 August 1996

30


NASA reported that a team of scientists from Johnson Space Center and Stanford University had found evidence that ldquostrongly suggestedrdquo that primitive life existed on the planet Mars During a two-year study the researchers discovered what they believed to be organic molecules of Martian origin on a potato-sized meteorite which members of the National Science Foundationrsquos Antarctica Meteorite Program had found in 1984 Scientists estimated that the meteorite was about 45 billion years old According to the teamrsquos report published in Science magazine the remnants on the meteorite shared several mineral characteristics indicating biological activity possibly even containing microscopic fossils of primitive bacteria-like organisms The minute scale of the evidence required the careful research of the team of specialists in the fields of microbiology mineralogy and chemistry The largest of the possible fossils measured about 1100th the diameter of a human hair Only with recently developed technological instruments including a dual-laser mass spectrometer were the scientists able to make any substantial observations112 The announcement generated immediate excitement in the scientific community and in the mass media although some scientists responded with a multitude of critical questions The researchers carefully qualified their report stating ldquoIt is very difficult to prove life existed 36 billion years ago on Earth let alone on Marsrdquo113 NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin pledged to make samples of the meteorite available to scientists throughout the world to encourage a full scientific investigation114

13 August NASA released images from its Galileo spacecraft indicating that water might have existed on Jupiterrsquos moon Europa in the past or might still exist there According to scientists studying the images Europa may have ldquowarm icerdquo on its surface Finding such ice would help scientists determine whether Europarsquos climate could support life ldquoWhat we are really looking for is niches that could support liferdquo Ronald Greeley a Galileo team scientist clarified at a press briefing releasing the images At first glance the pictures shot from a distance of about 95700 miles (154000 kilometers) seemed to depict a series of white stripes stretched across Europarsquos landscape However the stripes were actually ice glaciers long of interest to scientists Researchers had long suspected that Europa might be one of the places in the universe possessing water and therefore an environment that could support life NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin expressed ldquoskeptical optimismrdquo at the Europa findings and urged the scientific community to examine the pictures further in a tempered reaction similar to his stance regarding the discovery one week earlier of microbiological evidence of life on Mars115

17 August

112 David S McKay et al ldquoSearch for Past Life on Mars Possible Relic Biogenic Activity in Martian Meteorite ALH84001rdquo Science 273 no 5277 (16 August 1996) 924minus930 NASA ldquoMeteorite Yields Evidence of Primitive Life on Early Marsrdquo news release 96-160 7 August 1996 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNASA Releases Images of Mars Life Evidencerdquo Washington Post 8 August 1996 See also Kathy Sawyer The Rock from Mars A Detective Story on Two Planets (New York Random House 2006) 113 Malcolm W Browne ldquoPlanetary Experts Say Mars Life Is Still Speculativerdquo New York Times 8 August 1996 Joyce Price ldquoClinton Trumpets NASA lsquoTriumphrsquo Scientists Skepticalrdquo Washington Times 8 August 1996 114 McKay et al ldquoSearch for Past Life on Marsrdquo 924ndash930 NASA ldquoMeteorite Yields Evidencerdquo Sawyer ldquoNASA Releases Imagesrdquo 115 NASA ldquoStatement by Administrator Daniel S Goldin on the Release of New Galileo Spacecraft Images of Europardquo news release 96-166 13 August 1996 Reuters ldquoGalileo Hints at Water on Europardquo 14 August 1996 NASA ldquoJupiterrsquos Europa Harbors Possible lsquoWarm Icersquo or Liquid Waterrdquo news release 96-164 13 August 1996 Kathy Sawyer ldquoJupiter Moon May Contain Ice Floes Seardquo Washington Post 14 August 1996

31


The Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-24 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying cosmonauts Valery G Korzun and Alexander Y Kaleri and the first female French astronaut Claudie Andreacute-Deshays The crew of Soyuz planned to resupply Mirrsquos long-term

116crew

19 August The Russian Soyuz TM-24 which launched on 17 August arrived at Mir carrying Francersquos first female astronaut Claudie Andreacute-Deshays Andreacute-Deshays a rheumatologist joined Russian cosmonauts Valery G Korzun and Alexander Y Kaleri on the flight from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan She planned to study the effects of weightlessness on the human body during her stay aboard Mir The crew of Soyuz joined Shannon W Lucid the American astronaut who had been aboard the Russian space station since March Reporting the safe arrival of Andreacute-Deshays at Mir the head of Francersquos space program also announced that France would likely end its short-term space missions conducted aboard Russian vehicles France intended to focus on longer less frequent missions facilitating more detailed research programs The change in policy went into effect immediately with France canceling two French-Russian missions planned for 1998 and 1999117

21 August NASA launched its Fast Auroral Snapshot (FAST) Explorer from a test range near Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Engineers had designed the FAST vehicle to travel about 1500 miles (2400 kilometers) above Earth measuring energetic particles and magnetic and electric fields at high altitudes where auroras form to explore the ldquophysical processes that produce aurora borealis and aurora australisrdquo NASArsquos Small Explorer Project tasked with providing frequent and low-cost research missions for astrophysics investigations had carried out the FAST mission as the second in a series of five missions118

23 August NASArsquos analysts at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) who had investigated the causes of the Challenger explosion joined the probe into the crash of TWA flight 800 which exploded near Long Island New York on 17 July 1996 NASA offered the services of its MSFC investigative team to analyze why the center fuel tank of the Boeing 747 had exploded Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board led the investigation with support from a variety of other agencies including NASA the US Navy and the FBI119

27 August

116 Spacewarn Bulletin no 514 25 August 1996 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx514html (accessed 29 July 2008) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) ldquoRussian Spaceship Heads for Space Stationrdquo 18 August 1996 117 Craig Covault and Pierre Sparaco ldquoFrench Astronaut Joins RussianUS Mir Crewrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 145 no 9 (26 August 1996) 69 Associated Press ldquoRussian Spaceship Docks with Orbiting Stationrdquo 19 August 1996 Associated Press ldquoFifth Joint French-Russian Mission May Be Last Official Saysrdquo 19 August 1996 118 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ldquoFAST Status Report 1 Spacecraft Successfully Launchedrdquo news release 21 August 1996 Bruce Smith ldquoFast Launched Successfullyrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 145 no 9 (26 August 1996) 71 119 Robert Davis ldquoChallenger Experts Aid in TWA Proberdquo USA Today 23 August 1996 Eric Malnic ldquoExperts at NASA Join Probe of TWA Crashrdquo Los Angeles Times 23 August 1996

32


The Galileo spacecraft lost some of its collected data when a problem with one of its computer processors caused a shutdown of nonessential systems Project Manager William J OrsquoNeil said that much of the lost data was of little consequence to researchers but that data from Galileorsquos continuous study of Jupiterrsquos magnetic field had suffered a significant loss creating an information gap of about one week The episode which occurred in the midst of NASArsquos string of impressive research achievements highlighted the difficulty of directing a data-gathering probe thousands of miles from Earthrsquos surface120

28 August NASA and Orbital Sciences Corporation signed a contract which was not a cooperative agreement whereby Orbital Sciences would build a new X-34 reusable launch vehicle smaller than that originally planned NASA had first made public the original X-34 program in 1994 NASA had intended the program also known as the Reusable Small Booster Program to stimulate the development of a reusable commercial launch vehicle to place smaller payloads in low orbit In addition NASA planned for the X-34 program to demonstrate that an industry-led partnership between NASA and the aerospace industry could accomplish this objective within 30 to 36 months and within a fixed government budget On 12 January 1995 NASA released a final cooperative agreement notice for the X-34 program and in March 1995 NASA selected Orbital Sciences Corporation as its industry partner Over the next eight months as design of the X-34 progressed problems arose over the selection of an appropriate rocket engine resulting in NASArsquos temporarily shutting down the program on 2 November 1995 In January 1996 Orbital Sciences Corporation suggested that NASA explore the potential of a smaller vehicle Orbital Sciences then issued stop-work orders to all its X-34 subcontractors effectively ending the program Because NASA wanted to use remaining federal dollars to develop a smaller vehicle capable of demonstrating various reusable launch technologies it rebid the contract in March 1996 On 10 June 1996 NASA selected Orbital Sciences to build the new X-34121

SEPTEMBER 1996

1 September More than 200 experts met in Sioux Falls South Dakota to plan the design and implementation of a new fleet of radar satellites The group emphasized the recent geological discoveries made with data from radar satellites especially from those satellites tracking the movements and shifts in Earthrsquos plates that have been impossible to track until recently The US Geological Survey and NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory sponsored the event Geophysicist Howard A Zebker described the satellites as a ldquogreat leap forward Itrsquos like suddenly having [x]-rays to see inside a bodyrdquo122

4 September

120 Kathy Sawyer ldquoSpacecraft in Orbit Around Jupiter Loses Datardquo Washington Post 27 August 1996 Associated Press ldquoComputer Error on Spacecraft Exploring Jupiterrdquo 28 August 1996 See also Michael Meltzer Mission to Jupiter A History of the Galileo Project (Washington DC NASA 2007) 121 NASA History Division ldquoX-33 History Project Fact Sheet 7 The Policy Origins of the X-33 Part VII The X34rdquo March 25 2000 httpwwwhqnasagovpaoHistoryx-33facts_7htm 122 William J Broad ldquoSatellite Radar Unveils Subtle Slow Wrinkling of the Planetrsquos Surfacerdquo New York Times 3 September 1996

33

shy


Hurricane Fran delayed the launch of Shuttle Atlantis NASA managers decided to move the Shuttle off the launchpad when it became clear that the hurricanersquos path lay through the southeast region of the United States Because of the slow rollback of the vehicle from the launchpad to the assembly building managers determined that they would not be able to meet the scheduled 14 September departure date123

5 September Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope identified 18 star clusters that they believed to be embryonic galaxies According to the New York Times because the clusters resided 11 billion light-years from Earth essentially the scientists had glimpsed back in time The observations supported a theory that galaxies begin with stars grouping together The astronomers from Arizona State University and the University of Alabama called the discovery ldquothe first page in an otherwise blank bookrdquo124

NASA named astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria to replace astronaut Wendy B Lawrence as NASArsquos Director of Operations at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City Russia The job of the director was to coordinate the training of US astronauts headed for the Mir space station and to act as liaison between NASA and the Russian Space Agency125

6 September NASA awarded grants to fund 19 studies that researchers had proposed in response to a NASA research announcement NASA awarded a total of US$29 million for the studies which focused on innovative mission concepts in space physics NASA expected most of the studies to last one or two years and to cost about US$100000 each year NASA planned to use the studies in forming its space science strategic plan and in considering future missions126

7 September Because of delays in launching Shuttle Atlantis astronaut Shannon W Lucid broke Elena V Kondakovarsquos record for longest single flight in space by a woman NASA engineers had delayed the launch because they suspected that the O-rings on the solid rocket boosters were faulty and wanted to replace them During Lucidrsquos stay in space aboard Mir she and the two Russian cosmonauts had conducted a variety of scientific experiments127

11 September NASA announced that engineers from NASA and Lockheed Martin had completed successful tests on a prototype lightweight external fuel tank for the Shuttle The tests measured the tankrsquos strength and reliability under conditions exceeding recommended flight certification NASArsquos External Tank Project Manager Parker V Counts reported that the tests had demonstrated that the unique composition of the very lightweight tanks did not reduce their strength NASA had

123 NASA ldquoAtlantis Moved to VAB STS-79 Delayedrdquo launch advisory 96-181 4 September 1996 124 Lee Bowman ldquoPossible View of Galaxies Being Bornrdquo Washington Times 5 September 1996 John Noble Wilford ldquoLooking Back 11 Billion Light-Years a Glimpse at Galaxy Birthrdquo New York Times 5 September 1996 125 NASA ldquoLopez-Alegria To Replace Lawrence as NASA Manager to Russiardquo news release 96-182 5 September 1996 126 NASA ldquoNASA Selects 19 Innovative Space Physics Mission Conceptsrdquo news release 96-184 6 September 1996 127 NASA ldquoLucid To Break Record Latest Images of Hurricane Franrdquo video advisory V96-111 6 September 1996

34


awarded Lockheed Martin the contract to produce the lighter tanks to enable the Shuttle to carry cargo to the high inclination orbit where the International Space Station (ISS) would reside To build the tanks NASA had used aluminum lithium a material both lighter and stronger than the metal alloy used in previous tank construction NASA had designed the tanks to weigh 7500 pounds (3400 kilograms) less than the models used on earlier Shuttles128

12 September Scientists at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) received the first images from the United Statesrsquo Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) as the instrument orbited aboard the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) GSFC scientists noted the superior quality of the initial images ADEOS continued a long line of satellites launched to aid scientists in observing total levels of ozone and volcanic sulfur dioxide Because of data obtained from the TOMS instruments deployed by NASA millions of Americans became aware of the ozone hole and began to use ozone as a household word The latest TOMS instrument joined a series of instruments aboard ADEOS including the Improved Limb Atmospheric Sounder the Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases and the Retroreflector in Space129

13 September In Marshall Space Flight Centerrsquos (MSFCrsquos) underwater weightless simulator NASA began testing a remotely controlled robot created by a team of researchers from the University of Maryland Team leaders nicknamed the robot Ranger predicting that it would one day assist astronauts aboard the Shuttle or the ISS Project Manager Joseph Parrish pointed out that astronauts often use valuable spacewalk time completing mundane tasks such as collecting tools establishing footholds and cleaning up Scientists hoped Ranger could perform such tasks under the command of an operator located in space or even that of an operator at NASArsquos command center The 8-foot-long (24-meter-long) 1700-pound (770-kilogram) robot used gas thrusters robotic arms lights and cameras The academic project filled a void in experimental robot design a program affected by NASArsquos budget cuts Allowing university researchers and professors to design and test the robot cost NASA about US$8 million far less than NASA would pay for similar projects contracted through an aerospace firm During the tests the University of Marylandrsquos team operated Ranger remotely from its campus hundreds of miles away from MSFCrsquos facility in Huntsville Alabama130

16 September Shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida Hurricane Fran had delayed the launch and the subsequent ShuttlendashMir rendezvous The mission was the fourth Mir docking mission for a US Space Shuttle William F Readdy commanded the six-astronaut crew aboard Atlantis including Pilot Terrence W Wilcutt and Mission Specialists Jay Apt Thomas D Akers Carl E Walz and John E Blaha During Mission STS-79 the Shuttle crew planned to retrieve astronaut Shannon W Lucid from Mir leaving astronaut John Blaha as her replacement The Shuttle carried 4600 pounds (2090 kilograms) of supplies to Mir

128 NASA ldquoShuttle Super Lightweight Fuel Tank Completes Testsrdquo news release 96-186 11 September 1996 129 NASA ldquoFirst Global Image of Total Atmospheric Ozone Obtained from NASA Instrument Aboard Japanese Satelliterdquo news release 96-188 16 September 1996 130 Martin Burkey ldquoRanger Gets a Workoutrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 13 September 1996

35


Mission STS-79 the 17th flight of Shuttle Atlantis entailed the largest transfer of supplies ever made to Mir131

19 September The White House released a new national space policy the first such directive since the Cold War White House policy advisors constructed the plan over an 18-month period amidst government-wide calls for tightening NASArsquos budget The policy statement called for controlling costs by using private-sector industry to build develop and operate selected space technologies The directive also advocated drawing together civilian and military space activities and forging closer ties with foreign countries conducting space research The Clinton administration reversed several decisions of President George H W Bush most noticeably the former Presidentrsquos call to land an astronaut on Mars Space experts called the initiative too costly and dangerous Instead the Clinton plan relied on robots to explore Mars and targeted the ISS as the hub of human-based space exploration as well as enshrining the ldquofaster better cheaperrdquo mantra of NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin Congress planned to hold a funding summit in the months following the release of the policy to bring together key political military and science officials132

26 September Astronaut Shannon W Lucid returned to Earth after her record-setting space sojourn on Russiarsquos Mir space station Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida delivering Lucid home to a celebration honoring her 188 days spent in space most of it aboard Mir During her mission Lucid had traveled 75 million miles (121 million kilometers) the equivalent of 157 trips to the Moon and back Doctors stood by to greet the Shuttle expecting Lucid to experience some muscle weakness as her body re-accustomed itself to the effects of gravity President William J Clinton called to congratulate Lucid saying ldquoWe are all so proud of yourdquo133

28 September During a top-level meeting between officials of the United States and Russia NASA made public a shift in its policy announcing that US astronauts would not always have command aboard the ISS In a compromise meant to encourage Russia to build its portion of the station NASA conceded that astronauts from other countries would have the opportunity to command the ISS for significant periods134

30 September

131 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Mission STS-79mdashPress Kitrdquo news release 96-179 September 1996 William Harwood ldquoShuttle Arrives for Astronautrsquos Long-Awaited Pickuprdquo Washington Post 19 September 1996 132 Kathy Sawyer ldquoWhite House Releasing New National Space Policyrdquo Washington Post 19 September 1996 Associated Press ldquoSpace Policyrdquo 19 September 1996 The White House National Science and Technology Council ldquoFact Sheet National Space Policyrdquo 19 September 1996 httphistorynasagovappf2pdf 133 Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttlerdquo 26 September 1996 Associated Press ldquoRemarks by President Clinton in Conversation with Astronaut Lucidrdquo 26 September 1996 United Press International ldquoLucidrsquos Six-Month Mission Endsrdquo 26 September 1996 134 Knight-Ridder News Service ldquoCommand of Space Station Will Be Shared by Other Nationsrdquo 28 September 1996

36


Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) at Edwards Air Force Base in California commemorated its 50th anniversary with a celebration called Discovery Through Flight Research The Center got its start when five aeronautical engineers from Langley Research Center arrived to explore flight beyond the speed of sound in preparation for the X-1 tests featuring pilot Charles E ldquoChuckrdquo Yeager at the controls Researchers at DFRC contributed to a wide variety of aeronautical achievements including breaking the sound barrier and helping launch the Space Shuttle program At the age of 50 DFRC employed 900 government and civilian contractor employees135

With the push of a button at GSFC NASA discontinued use of the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite which had been in orbit since 1978 When NASA sent a signal to the satellite to empty its fuel the satellite effectively went to sleep spinning off into space Although NASA had originally designed the satellite to spend only three years in space scientists continued to use it to gather data far beyond the spacecraftrsquos anticipated lifespan NASA ended control of the satellite to save between US$1 and US$2 million annually in operating costs GSFC had operated the satellite as part of a three-way agreement with the European Space Agency and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council of the United Kingdom More than 2000 researchers from around the world had made observations from the satellite research that had directly led to the publication of more than 3200 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals136

OCTOBER 1996

1 October United Space Alliance (USA) a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corporation and Rockwell International took over daily operations of NASArsquos Space Shuttle fleet NASA had previously used private contractors NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin marked the occasion as ldquothe first day of a new space program in Americardquo Financial experts forecast that the government-private industry pact might be worth as much as US$12 billion by the end of its 10-year venture According to the agreement USA shouldered the responsibility for the 12 Shuttle-related contracts carried out at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida and Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston Texas NASA stated that USA might take over additional tasks in the future NASA had decided to consolidate the Shuttle operations with USA to improve cost efficiency a vital step in light of congressional budget cuts Kent Black the CEO of USA predicted that the move would save NASA as much as 20 percent of its operating budget for the Shuttle in the first year of the contract alone Even with the turnover NASA maintained complete control over planning Shuttle missions selecting astronauts and approving launches of the Shuttle NASA planned to take on an oversight role similar to that of the Federal Aviation Administration rewarding USA with bonuses for savings and imposing monetary penalties if the company failed to achieve ldquovery goodrdquo safety ratings137

135 Antelope Valley Press (Palmdale CA) ldquoDryden Marks Half-Century of Achievementsrdquo 25 September 1996 136 Associated Press ldquoAncient Spacecraftrdquo 1 October 1996 137 Associated Press ldquoNASA Turns Shuttle Operations Over to Private Industryrdquo 30 Sept 1996 Reuters ldquoNASA Signs $7 Billion Shuttle Pactrdquo 30 September 1996 United Press International ldquoNASA signs $12 Billion Shuttle Pactrdquo 1 October 1996

37


NASA introduced a new technology with the potential to make much smaller and more efficient electronic devices the Thin-Layer Composite-Unimorph Piezoelectric Driver and Sensor (THUNDER) Researchers at Langley Research Center (LARC) recognized the potential of piezoelectric material because of its well-known capability to generate movement when subjected to an electric current NASA hoped that the THUNDER technology would improve devices in ldquoelectronics optics jitter (irregular motion) suppression noise cancellation pumps valves and a variety of other fieldsrdquo LARCrsquos interdisciplinary team had improved upon already available commercial-grade piezoelectric material producing a more durable cheaper and more effective product RampD Magazine announced that it would honor THUNDER as one of its top 100 most technologically significant new products of the year Six companies signed agreements with NASA to develop THUNDER and a dozen other companies expressed interest in negotiating similar pacts138

3 October China announced it would participate in an international collaborative space research project for the first time in its history Chinese scientists planned to assist their colleagues from Russia and the United States in the future Discovery mission Although China had no plans to send an astronaut on the Shuttle Chinese aerospace engineers volunteered to construct the sophisticated magnets needed to build a magnetic spectrometer The project was the first time the usually secretive Chinese space science program had opened itself to outside scrutiny139

NASA discovered the second of two misplaced hand tools left inside the propulsion system of the recently landed Shuttle Atlantis Although the Shuttle had experienced no problems during its 10-day flight NASA formed an investigative panel to determine who had left the tools inside the Shuttlersquos engine compartment after completing work Inspectors had discovered the first missing tool inside the electronic control compartment of the Shuttlersquos reusable rocket booster when they retrieved the booster from the Atlantic Ocean shortly after the launch Workers discovered the second tool during a routine postflight inspection of Atlantisrsquos rocket engine compartment Although the tools likely posed no threat to the safety of the Shuttle crew a NASA representative said that for safety reasons NASA intended to find out how workers had made the error and if possible to identify the Shuttle contractor responsible140

8 October President William J Clinton signed legislation ending funding for the federal helium reserve The United States through the Bureau of Mines had bought and stockpiled helium since the 1960s⎯expending more than US$250 million Experts estimated that the US governmentrsquos helium reserve could supply the world for more than 10 years and the federal government for 80 The legislation to end the reserve spearheaded by US Representative Christopher Cox (R-CA) closed down the helium facility outside Amarillo Texas NASA planned to sell the helium slowly over a period of 18 years so that the sales would not destabilize the worldwide helium market The closure had the potential to affect NASA the federal governmentrsquos largest user of

138 NASA ldquoNASA Rolls Out Award-Winning lsquoThunderrsquordquo news release 96-197 1 October 1996 139 United Press International ldquoChina To Assist US Space Programrdquo 3 October 1996 140 Mark Carreau ldquoAnother Wrenching Experience for Shuttlerdquo Houston Chronicle 3 October 1996

38


helium At the time of the reserversquos closure NASA was using about 70 million cubic feet (2 million cubic meters) of helium annually to pressurize Shuttle fuel tanks among other uses141

10 October NASA researchers at Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) completed the testing of the Fshy16XL at Edwards Air Force Base The tests had taken more than one year to complete Scientists were studying how the modified F-16 flew with US$14 million laminar-flow gloves on its wings The data they collected demonstrated that the glove had reduced the turbulent layer of air that passes over an airplanersquos wing during flight Project Manager Carol A Reukauf called the tests successful NASA hoped the results would provide manufacturers with a new technology that would improve aeronautical design decreasing air drag on airplanes and consequently reducing the fuel required to fly142

11 October NASA marked the 50-year anniversary of the Bell X-1 aircraftrsquos first flight which took place at the site of Edwards Air Force Base home of NASArsquos DFRC According to Jay Miller the author of The X-Planes X-1 to X-33 the X-1 had given flight researchers and engineers their first full-scale tool to study transonic aerodynamics The Bell Aircraft Corporation the US Army Air Forces (predecessor of the US Air Force) and NASArsquos predecessor the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had collaborated to get the first test plane off the ground The X-1 test not only provided aeronautical data but also pioneered the test methods later adopted by DFRC flight researchers143

15 October Russia postponed the scheduled launch of Progress M-33 a cargo vehicle loaded with supplies for the two Russian cosmonauts and the one American astronaut aboard the Mir space station The delay highlighted once again the severe budget crisis of the Russian Space Agency A lack of funding held up the production of the rocket booster needed to send the craft into space The crew on Mir had sufficient supplies aboard the space station but missed the visit from Earth Besides supplying food regular planned visits provided needed contact for the space dwellers The postponement was the fourth time in 1996 that Russia had delayed the scheduled launch to Mir because of problems paying for the production of Soyuz-U boosters Reuters announced that because of the delay a group of laboratory monkeys already wired to monitor the effects of space travel would die without ever leaving Earth144

18 October NASA announced the completion of a major benchmark in the development of its Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) as engineers completed the delicate task of assembling the high-resolution cylindrical mirrors needed for the facilityrsquos telescope Engineers aligned and cemented the mirrors into place at the facility in Rochester New York Unlike optical telescopes

141 Associated Press ldquoClinton Signs Law Killing Federal Helium Reservesrdquo 9 October 1996 142 Jay Levine ldquoLaminar Flow Tests Successfulrdquo Antelope Valley Press (Palmdale CA) 10 October 1996 143 NASA ldquoThe X-Planes 50 Years of High Desert lsquoRight Stuffrsquordquo news release 96-204 10 October 1996 144 Reuters ldquoRussia Postpones Mir Supply Rocket Missionrdquo 16 October 1996

39


the AXAF used a series of shallow mirrors shaped like cylindrical cones to produce its image AXAFrsquos mirrors were the largest set of such mirrors ever constructed145

19 October For the first time in its 30-year history KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida welcomed the public for an open house Nearly 40000 visitors came to KSC for the occasion NASA allowed visitors to drive directly down the road used by the astronauts and up to Shuttle Columbia sitting on the launchpad Many visitors commented on how worn the Shuttle looked after its many launches and reentries The details of the Shuttlersquos appearance were not visible to viewers watching the Shuttle on television NASA officials also opened the Vehicle Assembly Building one of the largest structures in the world Astronauts were available to greet the public146

22 October NASA announced the retirement of Jay F Honeycutt Director of KSC A search for Honeycuttrsquos successor began immediately following the announcement Honeycutt had joined NASA in 1966 after working as an engineer for Redstone Arsenal He had begun as an engineer in flight operations and had worked at JSC later training Apollo astronauts for the lunar landings and had moved to NASA Headquarters in 1981 Honeycutt had transferred to KSC in 1989 as Director of Shuttle Management and Operations and had become Director of KSC in 1995 Honeycutt had won two Exceptional Service Medals the Special Achievement Award NASArsquos Outstanding Leadership Medal NASArsquos Equal Employment Opportunity Award and the Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award147

24 October DFRC test pilot Edward T Schneider received the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Chanute Flight Test Award for his work testing the F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle at extremely high angles of attack The Institute honored Schneider at the World Aviation Congress and Exposition held in Los Angeles California Schneider had participated in NASArsquos Attack Research Program meant to improve the control and maneuverability of high-performance aircraft He tested the thrust-vectoring control system installed in the F-18 which allowed pilots to make high-angle motions and still maintain control of their planes Schneider spent nine years testing the F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle during his distinguished 18-year career as a test pilot Schneider had received NASArsquos Exceptional Service Medal in 1996148

30 October A NASA research team published in the Journal of Geophysical Research its findings on urban-like pollution over the tropical South Atlantic Ocean The team used data gathered from an experiment called the Transport and Chemistry near the Equator of the Atlantic (TRACE-A) conducted with the Brazilian Space Agency and scientists from South Africa The scientists suspected that the high concentrations of ozone like those found in densely populated urban

145 NASA ldquoCompletion of Mirror Assembly Marks Milestone for NASArsquos Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facilityrdquo news release 96-212 18 October 1996 146 Reuters ldquoKennedy Space Center Opens Doors to Fansrdquo 21 October 1996 147 NASA ldquoKSC Director Jay Honeycutt To Retirerdquo news release 96-215 22 October 1996 148 Antelope Valley Press (Palmdale CA) ldquoDryden Pilot Receives Flying Awardrdquo 25 October 1996 httpwwwnasagovlbcentersdrydennewsBiographiesPilotsbd-dfrc-p014html (accessed 5 August 2007)

40


areas resulted from seasonal burnings in South America and Africa According to the NASA researchers the presence of pollution over the tropical ocean confirmed that humans had extended their negative impact on ldquotraditionally pristine airrdquo far beyond reaches directly above land According to one researcher the results of TRACE-A greatly improved the scientific communityrsquos understanding of the atmospheric chemistry of the Southern Hemisphere149

NOVEMBER 1996

4 November NASA released images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope revealing a dust storm on Mars nearly the size of the state of Texas The storm appeared in the pictures of the planet as a 600shymile-long (965-kilometer-long) salmon-colored patch Scientists believed this was the first time that one of the huge storms had neared the planetrsquos northern polar ice cap150

6 November A team of scientists from the United States the United Kingdom and Australia discovered new evidence that pushed back considerably the scientifically estimated date of the origin of life on Earth The researchers projected that the Earthrsquos age might be 350 million years older than previously thought The research team led by Gustaf Arrhenius published its findings in the 7 November issue of Nature The scientists argued that the presence of apatite (basic calcium phosphate) in Earthrsquos oldest known sediment sequences suggested that life had emerged on Earth 385 billion years ago The scientific community met these findings with both excitement and skepticism151

7 November NASA spacecraft managers reported the failure of two scientific satellites NASA had designed the Scientific Applications Satellite-B (SAC-B) launched three days earlier from NASArsquos Wallops Flight Facility to survey solar flares and gamma-ray bursts The project was a cooperative effort between NASA and Argentina NASA scientists had intended the second satellite HETE (High Energy Transient Experiment) to remain dormant until it detected sunlight at which time it would deploy transmitting signals Scientists doubted this would ever occur because the satellite had fallen into a tumbling pattern Officials hypothesized that the satellites had not deployed properly and therefore had orbited uselessly lacking electrical power NASA valued both satellites at more than US$20 million The launch failure was the third miscue in two years for the Pegasus rocket program The Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles Virginia developed and ran the program152

149 NASA ldquoNASA Team Finds Urban-Like Pollution in Tropical South Atlanticrdquo news release 96-220 30 October 1996 150 Reuters ldquoHubble Shows Texas-Size Dust Storm on Marsrdquo 4 November 1996 151 S J Mojzsis et al ldquoEvidence for Life on Earth Before 3800 Million Years Agordquo Nature 384 no 6604 (7 November 1996) 55 Malcolm W Browne ldquoEvidence Puts Date for Lifersquos Origin Back Millions of Yearsrdquo New York Times 7 November 1996 152 John Mintz ldquoOrbital Sciences Fails in Another Launchrdquo Washington Post 5 November 1996 Associated Press ldquoNASA Reports Failure of Scientific Satellitesrdquo 7 November 1996 NASA ldquoSAC-BHETE Spacecraft No Longer Operationalrdquo news release 96-231 7 November 1996

41


NASA launched into space its unpiloted Mars Global Surveyor the first in a series of missions to explore the Red Planet further The Mars Global Surveyor Mission and vehicle embodied a shift in the United Statesrsquo approach to space exploration With the expressed intent to make exploration as affordable and reliable as possible NASA had developed the smaller Mars Global Surveyor measuring 5 by 5 by 10 feet (15 by 15 by 3 meters) and designed to carry less fuel than Mars Observer Mars Global Surveyor cost NASA US$150 million to develop whereas Observer had cost nearly US$1 billion and had failed to reach Mars after its 1992 launch Surveyorrsquos ability to function with less fuel than previous models heightened the chances that it would succeed in its mission NASA predicted that after ascending to the desired 235-mile-high (378-kilometer-high) orbit the robotic Global Surveyor would have to travel nearly halfway around the Sun before catching up with Mars in September 1997 The spacecraft would then begin mapping the Martian atmosphere and surface a survey planned to last 687 days Mission objectives included searching for evidence of life on Mars gathering data about the Martian climate learning more about the planetrsquos geology and determining what resources were necessary to support future human missions to Mars According to NASA the search for water was the unifying theme of all missions to Mars The Mars Global Surveyor Mission continued the exploration of Mars that NASA had begun with the Mariner and Viking missions of the 1960s and 1970s153

12 November In its annual contest Popular Science magazine honored NASArsquos experimental flight-control system as one of the best technological developments of 1996 NASA had installed the system developed for the use of NASA and the US Air Force in a remotely piloted aircraft called LoFLYTE (Low Observable Flight Test Experiment) On board the aircraft the system used techniques involving neural networks to ldquolearnrdquo to fly actually acquiring flight skills by mimicking the actions of the pilot controlling the plane from the ground Neural networks are systems that learn skills by doing them Scientists hoped the technology might eventually have an impact on commercial and military aviation154

A malfunction in an unpiloted test plane forced NASA officials to detonate the plane high above Edwards Air Force Base in California The lightweight plane dubbed Theseus veered out of control during a routine test flight Aurora Flight Systems had developed the US$5 million plane for long-term flights to observe climatic conditions from altitudes as high as 60000 feet (18300 kilometers) A spokesperson for Aurora indicated that the company had insufficient data to determine the cause of the failure NASA had contracted with Aurora Flight Systems to develop the plane as part of its Mission to Planet Earth initiative At the time of the forced detonation NASA had not designated funds to develop any subsequent Theseus models155

15 November

153 Associated Press ldquoMars Probe Heads for Mappingrdquo 8 November 1996 Paul Hoversten ldquoSurveyor Sets Off for Marsrdquo USA Today 8 November 1996 NASA ldquo1996 Mars MissionmdashPress Kitrdquo news release 96-207 November 1996 154 NASA ldquoAircraft Flight-Control System Wins lsquoBest of Whatrsquos Newrsquordquo news release 96-233 12 November 1996 155 David Colker ldquoPilotless Test Plane Blown Up After It Veers Off Courserdquo Los Angeles Times 13 November 1996 Jim Skeen ldquoPilotless Aircraft Crashes at Edwardsrdquo Antelope Valley News (Palmdale CA) 13 November 1996

42


NASA appointed Samuel L Venneri as Chief Technologist at NASA Headquarters reporting directly to Administrator Daniel S Goldin The appointment placed Venneri in charge of all of NASArsquos technology policy initiatives and programs Venneri had served at NASA since 1981 after working as an aerospace consultant for Swales and Associates and as an engineer for Fairchild Space Electronics156

17 November A Russian nuclear-powered Mars probe crashed into the South Pacific Ocean about 500 miles (800 kilometers) southeast of New Zealand The US Space Command located in Colorado Springs Colorado monitored the descent of the disabled craft but was unsure exactly when and where the probe had hit the ocean Russian space scientists assured NASA that no danger of nuclear contamination existed A handful of experts however cautioned that in an extremely unlikely worst-case scenario the impact could result in a small but lethal plutonium cloud President Clinton vacationing in Australia at the time offered the services of US teams trained to locate and recover stray nuclear materials Russian officials believed that the probe named Mars-96 had failed to reach orbit because of a malfunction during the fourth stage of the Proton-K rocketrsquos ascent Mars-96 carried plutonium pellets the size of eraser heads designed to withstand the pressures of entering Marsrsquos atmosphere The probersquos failure was a setback for the international effort to explore Mars as well as for the Russian space program Donna L Shirley of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory the chief of the US Mars effort called the failure a ldquoterrible terrible tragedyrdquo for researchers Some people speculated that the crash would prompt a rebirth of protests against using nuclear materials in spacecraft157

NASA officials confirmed that tense negotiations with Russia over the composition of the first crew to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) had resulted in Russiarsquos withdrawing one of its most senior and well-trained cosmonauts from consideration NASA had selected US astronaut William M Shepherd to lead the 1998 mission and veteran space traveler Anatoly Y Solovyev to accompany Shepherd Each country strongly insisted that its own astronaut lead the international venture In a letter to Russian Prime Minister Viktor S Chernomyrdin Russian space officials stated ldquoDespite the Russian efforts to make experienced cosmonaut Solovyev the crew commander the American side is [pre]emptorily insisting on the candidacy of American astronaut Shepherdrdquo Because the United States had insisted that Shepherd command the mission Russian officials threatened that Russian Space Agency cosmonauts would not cooperate claiming ldquoexperienced Russian crew commanders doubt the expediency of their participationrdquo The standoff highlighted the diplomatic difficulty of holding together the international coalition necessary to construct the ISS158

19 November Space Shuttle Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida at 255 pm (EST) In addition to a five-day delay because of the weather NASA had delayed the mission for a week so that its engineers could conduct a careful check of possible problems with the rocket nozzles News agencies reported that the fifteen-year-old Columbia the nationrsquos

156 NASA ldquoVenneri Named NASA Chief Technology Officerrdquo news release 96-240 15 November 1996 157 Warren P Strobel ldquoRussianrsquos Mars Probe Crashesrdquo Washington Times 18 November 1996 Richard Boudreaux and K C Cole ldquoFailure of Mars Mission Called Scientific Tragedyrdquo Los Angeles Times 19 November 1996 158 Reuters ldquoTug of War Knocks Cosmonaut off Crewrdquo 18 November 1996

43


oldest Space Shuttle was carrying into space sixty-one-year-old F Story Musgrave the oldest astronaut With his sixth spaceflight Musgrave became the first astronaut to fly on all five of NASArsquos Shuttles In Mission STS-80 NASArsquos final Shuttle flight of 1996 the crew planned to deploy and retrieve two free-flying spacecraft conduct spacewalks and carry out a number of microgravity research experiments Additionally NASA and the National Institutes of Health planned to collaborate on tests further exploring how the human body reacts to the space environment Only hours after Columbiarsquos launch Shuttle crew released the US-German Orbiting Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer designed to make as many as 300 observations of stars and interstellar gas during the Shuttlersquos mission159

21 November The European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Eutelsat) launched from Cape Canaveral Florida aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas 2A rocket a satellite aimed at serving the burgeoning European television market The satellite Hot Bird 2 cost US$100 million to develop and was powerful enough to beam television images throughout Europe and the Middle East Eutelsat led a consortium of co-owner companies from the 45 different countries that co-own the satellite Eutelsat assumed responsibility for operating Hot Bird 2 calling it ldquothe most powerful commercial satellite launched to daterdquo160

25 November NASA returned the record-setting solar-powered research aircraft Pathfinder to flight-testing at Dryden Flight Research Center Pathfinder had set an altitude record of more than 50000 feet (15000 meters) during a flight on 11 September 1995 Wear and tear during previous operations as well as a ground accident inside a hangar had damaged the craft NASA had hired AeroVironment to repair the remotely piloted plane AeroVironment made several improvements and rebuilt the damaged portions of the aircraft The company installed stronger rib structure and higher-efficiency solar cells NASA had adopted Pathfinder in the 1980s after the aircraftrsquos release from a classified military program161

28 November NASA canceled a spacewalk for the astronauts aboard Shuttle Columbia when the astronauts could not open the outer air lock After communicating for more than 2 hours with Mission Control in Houston with officials instructing them to ldquoput as much force as you feel comfortable applying to the handlerdquo Columbiarsquos crew ended preparations for the spacewalk During the spacewalk the astronauts had intended to test a large crane and various power tools planned for the ISS162

29 November

159 Reuters ldquoShuttle Crew with Oldest Astronaut Is Set To Flyrdquo 19 November 1996 John Noble Wilford ldquoShuttle Blasts Off on Mission with 2 Scientific Satellitesrdquo New York Times 20 November 1996 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Mission STS-80mdashPress Kitrdquo news release 96-206 November 1996 Associated Press ldquoAstronauts Release Ultraviolet Telescoperdquo 20 November 1996 160 Todd Halverson ldquoAtlas Sends $100 Million Satellite into Orbitrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 22 November 1996 161 NASA ldquoSolar-Powered Pathfinder Returns to Skiesrdquo news release 25 November 1996 162 William Harwood ldquoSpacewalk Called Off as Air Lock Hatch Wonrsquot Openrdquo Washington Post 28 November 1996

44


The Russian-built Tu-144LL supersonic passenger jet which US and Russian aerospace industries and NASA had modified for commercial purposes performed well in its first test flight after refurbishment The aircraft took off from the Zhukovsky Airfield south of Moscow During the Tu-144LL flight researchers studied the impact of excessive speeds on the aircraftrsquos internal and exterior surfaces engine temperature and handling The aircraftrsquos body constructed primarily from light aluminum alloy held up well during the initial test The Tu-144LL project supported NASArsquos High-Speed Research Program which had begun in 1990 to encourage the development of technologies supporting supersonic commercial travel The Boeing Company had led the US industry involvement in the project with support from McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Rockwell International Corporation Pratt amp Whitney and General Electric Company The projectrsquos aim was to prepare flight-research facilities to adapt to market demands of the future Aviation experts predicted that a commercial market for advanced supersonic transport would evolve early in the 21st century163

DECEMBER 1996

2 December President William J Clinton awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to astronaut Shannon W Lucid the first woman to receive the award Praising Lucid as a ldquodetermined visionaryrdquo President Clinton presided over the Oval Office ceremony as the fifty-three-year-old astronaut recounted her 188 days aboard the Mir space station Lucid recalled fondly her time spent with the two Russian cosmonauts a period characterized by ldquoworking together laughing together and having a good time togetherrdquo Lucidrsquos husband Michael attended the ceremony along with US Senators John H Glenn Jr (D-OH) and Conrad Burns (R-MT) NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin and Russian Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov The US Congress had created the Space Medal of Honor in 1969 awarding it to eight astronauts before Lucid The award is distinct from the Medal of Honor awarded for the highest acts of military service and extraordinary heroism on the field of combat164

Scientists announced the discovery of frozen water on the Moon calling into question the long-held belief that the Moon lacked any form of hydration The Clementine spacecraft had found the ice while using radar signals to examine the depths of the Moonrsquos craters The discovery was the by-product of a US$75 million mission co-sponsored by NASA and the US Department of Defense to test the Ballistic Missile Defense Organizationrsquos ldquoStar Warsrdquo sensors developed to detect and track missiles The possible ice deposit composed of the suspected ice crystals mixed with dirt and spread over a vast landscape was termed a dirty lake The scientists discovered the ice in a massive extremely deep crater One scientist described the crater as twice the size of Puerto Rico and deeper than the height of Mount Everest Scientists discussing the significance of the discovery postulated that the presence of water on the Moon might be a boon to future space exploration perhaps enabling the construction of a ldquofilling stationrdquo on the Moon Other

163 NASA ldquoFirst Flight of US-Russian Supersonic Testbed Scheduled for Nov 29rdquo news release N96-78 26 November 1996 ldquoRussian Tu-144LL SST Joint NASA Flying LaboratorymdashFlight November 29 1996rdquo httpnixlarcnasagovinfojsessionid=1f4kro1asktqmid=EC96-43859-2amporgid=7 (accessed 1 August 2007) 164 Associated Press ldquoPresident Clintonrsquos Remarks in Awarding Medal to Shannon Lucidrdquo 2 December 1996 Associated Press ldquoClinton Gives Medal to Record-Setting Astronautrdquo 2 December 1996 For more information see NASA History Division ldquoCongressional Space Medal of Honorrdquo 28 April 2006 httphistorynasagov spacemedalhtm

45


scientists offered a more sober opinion of the findings referring to reports that the presence of water on the Moon might someday allow for colonization as ldquohyperbolerdquo165

4 December NASA launched its second unpiloted craft Mars Pathfinder less than a month after the first continuing its concentrated program of Mars exploration The US$196 million Pathfinder lifted off from Cape Canaveral Florida aboard a Delta II rocket on a mission planned to cover more than 300 million miles (480 million kilometers) NASA researchers expected the six-wheeled craft to land on Mars on 4 July 1997 and to journey across the planetrsquos surface gathering images of rocks and soil Depending on how useful the images were scientists planned for Pathfinder to roam Mars for at least one week and perhaps for months straying no farther than approximately 60 feet (18 meters) away from its landing site166

5 December NASA officials announced that a funding crisis in Russia would delay the human occupation of the International Space Station (ISS) up to eight months Before the announcement NASA had learned that the financial problems of the Russian Space Agency had virtually halted Russiarsquos work on the orbiting laboratoryrsquos nerve center Without Russiarsquos contribution to the station the crew of the ISS would have nowhere to stay during the construction of the station in space NASA officials remained hopeful that Russia would release funding for the project and keep its commitment to the effort Nevertheless NASA officials began revisiting contingency plans to address reductions in funding Russian Space Agency officials planned to meet with their NASA counterparts to discuss the situation167

6 December Scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas revealed their discovery of an ancient river channel buried beneath the Sahara Desert in Africa publishing their findings in Science magazine The discovery offered an answer to a question that had long perplexed the scientific community why does the Nile River as it flows through the worldrsquos largest desert (in Sudan) make a huge looping bend in its course The Nile generally flows toward the north except at the Great Bendrsquos turning where the river flows toward the southwest for more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) After this detour the Nile resumes its course toward the Mediterranean Sea The researchers had used the images taken by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar CX-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-CX-SAR) which had flown with Shuttle Endeavourrsquos Mission STS-59 in 1994 to study the ancient structures in the Precambrian rock guiding the riverrsquos course The SIR-CX-SAR radar waves had penetrated the sand to reveal unseen structures not visible without the satellite images Diane L Evans SIR-C Project Manager at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) called the discovery ldquoone of the most exciting discoveries from the SIR-CXshy

165 John Noble Wilford ldquoThe Moon May Have Water and Many New Possibilitiesrdquo New York Times 4 December 1996 Associated Press ldquoDeep Within Lunar Crater Small Frozen Lake Is Foundrdquo 3 December 1996 Joyce Price ldquoProspect of Ice on Moon Fires Hopes of Scientistsrdquo Washington Times 4 December 1996 Curt Suplee ldquoThe Moonrsquos lsquoDirty Lakersquo Makes Wavesrdquo Washington Post 4 December 1996 166 John Noble Wilford ldquoUS Launches Second Craft on a Mission To Study Marsrdquo New York Times 5 December 1996 167 William Harwood ldquoFunding Crisis To Delay Occupation of Space Stationrdquo Washington Post 6 December 1996

46


SAR mission to daterdquo JPL was managing the program as a part of NASArsquos Mission to Planet Earth initiative168

7 December Shuttle Columbia landed at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida Forced to remain in space an additional day because of bad weather Columbia and its crew had set an endurance record of nearly 18 days in space only one day short of the previous record of 17 days Heavy fog in Florida was the cause of the landing delay169

9 December NASA announced the completion on time and on budget of the first major component of the ISS Russiarsquos Khrunichev Industries and the Boeing Company had combined efforts to construct Functional Cargo Block (known by its Russian abbreviation FGB) a 20-ton (18000-kilogram or 18-tonne) pressurized module Members of the international space team planned to launch the spacecraft from Russia in November 1997 FGB formed the initial building block of the ISS featuring computer equipment thermal controls fire detection tools and navigational apparatus Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and Boeing Defense and Space Group received US$190 million for developing and building the craft According to the plan the ISS team would add many other components to FGB170

11 December In a postflight inspection NASA engineers discovered that one loose screw had caused the hatch on Shuttle Columbia to jam preventing the astronauts from taking their scheduled spacewalks The screw had probably dislodged during takeoff falling into the gears of the hatch NASA had decided to cancel the spacewalks rather than force the hatch open and risk damaging it permanently With the Shuttle scheduled to launch again in one month NASA faced the question of whether to remove and replace the gearboxes on all the hatches inside the Shuttle as a precautionary measure171

12 December Researchers at NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center announced that tests aimed at improving the efficiency of Space Shuttle engines would likely translate into substantial savings for commercial airlines as well Researchers had learned that locating an enginersquos turbine airfoils in the ldquooptimum positionrdquo could cut down the flow of fluttering wakes of gases When wakes occur an engine requires additional energy to run and generates higher temperatures NASA researchers predicted that the findings would have special application for the Boeing 777 Improving efficiency by a half percent would save hundreds of gallons of fuel per flight The researchers had based the new positioning of the turbines upon the simple principle evident when a bike racer drafts behind a competitor⎯because the first rider takes the full brunt of the wind

168 Robert J Stern and Mohamed Gamal ldquoThe Origin of the Great Bend of the Nile from SIR-CX-SAR Imageryrdquo Science 274 no 5293 (6 December 1996) 1696minus1698 NASA ldquoSpace Radar Unearths Secrets of the Ancient Nilerdquo news release 96-251 6 December 1996 169 Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttle Sets a Record for a Missionrdquo 7 December 1996 170 NASA ldquoStationrsquos First Module Assembled Ready for Testingrdquo news release 96-253 9 December 1996 171 Associated Press ldquoLoose Screw Caused Stuck Hatch on Shuttlerdquo 12 December 1996 Associated Press ldquoNASA Hatching Up Plan in Case Emergency Spacewalk Is Neededrdquo 2 December 1996

47


the second can travel equally as fast with less exertion The engineers found that by aligning turbines in the most efficient positions the engine derived a similar drafting172

New audio recordings gathered from the excursion of NASArsquos Galileo spacecrafts to Jupiterrsquos large moon Ganymede contained a ldquosoaring whistle and hissing staticrdquo suggesting that the moon possesses a planet-like magnetosphere According to Donald A Gurnett who had conducted the experiments using Galileorsquos plasma wave instrument the data ldquois kind of like looking at a musical scorerdquo The sound patterns mimic those found on Earth Saturn and Jupiter Gurnett suggested that the new findings would have broad significance for the scientific community possibly allowing scientists to draw further conclusions about the interplay between magnetic forces and matter throughout the universe173

NASA announced the successful harvest of the first crop of healthy plants grown completely in space Grown aboard the Russian space station Mir the super-dwarf wheat grew robustly in the microgravity of space Researchers at NASArsquos Ames Research Center termed the successful harvest a step toward a greater human presence in space ldquoThe development of plant-based regenerative life support systems is critical to sustaining a crew during long-duration missions such as the Mars explorationrdquo NASArsquos David Bubenheim explained The space station crew had raised the plants aboard Mir in a greenhouse designed by a team of Russian and Bulgarian engineers Florescent lights had provided sufficient light for the plants and the astronauts had injected water directly into the soil174

13 December The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel reported its findings on the safety of the Space Shuttle program concluding that aggressive cost-cutting measures had not increased risks The review responded to critics who had suggested that measures such as outsourcing flight operations had been too drastic causing a precipitous decline in NASA workersrsquo morale Administrator Daniel S Goldin responsible for making NASA a more fiscally lean organization praised NASArsquos ldquoclean bill of healthrdquo However the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel warned NASA about challenges that would arise during the assembly of the ISS cautioning those in favor of cutting the budget against trimming NASArsquos funds too drastically175

15 December The Boeing Company and the McDonnell Douglas Corporation announced that McDonnell Douglas would merge with Boeing in a stock-for-stock transaction The merger the biggest in aerospace history positioned Boeing to compete with Europersquos Airbus Industrie for nearly all commercial airline contracts The merger also strengthened Boeingrsquos position as one of the most influential companies both domestically and internationally in the United States The US$133 billion deal would place under a single umbrella nearly 200000 employees producing annual

172 NASA ldquoApplying NASA Shuttle Engine Test Findings May Save Airlines Millions in Fuel Costsrdquo news release 96-254 12 December 1996 173 D A Gurnett et al ldquoEvidence for Magnetosphere at Ganymede from Plasmawave Observations by the Galileo Spacecraftrdquo Nature 384 no 6609 (12 December 1996) 535 NASA ldquoBig Icy Moon of Jupiter Found To Have a lsquoVoicersquo After All Europa Flyby Next for Galileordquo news release 96-255 12 December 1996 174 NASA ldquoNASA Harvest of Mir Space Wheat Marks US-Russian Firstrdquo news release 96-256 12 December 1996 175 NASA ldquoPanel Review Finds Space Shuttle Saferdquo news release 96-257 13 December 1996

48


revenues in excess of US$48 billion The Boeing Company also emerged from the deal with improved chances of winning major military contracts whereas previously the company had few ventures involving the military aerospace industry However McDonnell Douglas had been the main supplier to the military of FA-18 and F-15 Eagle-model fighter jets to the military Thus the merger brought together leaders in the commercial and military sectors of the aerospace industry creating what one industry analyst called an ldquo800-pound gorillardquo McDonnell Douglas stock rose 20 percent on the first day of trading following the announcement176

16 December NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin hosted members of Congress and other government and aviation industry leaders at a ceremony marking the start of NASArsquos General Aviation Propulsion program NASA launched the endeavor to encourage the development of technologies and manufacturing practices that would create more cost-effective and environmentally friendly aviation-propulsion systems NASA selected as its partners William International and Teledyne Continental Motors along with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Industry Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments Consortium Aviation leaders praised the collaboration as the beginning of a movement to revolutionize aircraft engines and consequently the aviation industry177

20 December Astronomer and Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan died after a long fight against a bone marrow disease he was 62 years old Since 1971 Sagan had directed Cornell Universityrsquos Laboratory for Planetary Atmospheres and Surfaces where he forged his reputation as an expert in exobiology Sagan helped plan the Mariner Viking and Voyager missions receiving NASArsquos Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 1972 Sagan also helped popularize modern science with his widely viewed television series Cosmos Sagan described the television series as an endeavor ldquoto show that science is a delight and to end peoplersquos artificial alienation from itrdquo Saganrsquos The Dragons of Eden (1977) won the Pulitzer Prize Throughout his work Sagan had also argued for the possibility of extraterrestrial life178

24 December Russia launched a satellite carrying two monkeys and a collection of insects snails and plants The satellite Bion-11 launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome 600 kilometers (373 miles) north of Moscow The Russian Space Agency planned to study the effects of weightlessness on the animal ldquocrewrdquo179

JANUARY 1997

7 January

176 The Boeing Company ldquoMcDonnell Douglas To Merge with Boeing Combination To Be the Worldrsquos Largest Aerospace Companyrdquo news release 15 December 1996 Peter Kaplan ldquoMission Inevitablerdquo Washington Times 17 December 1996 David E Sanger ldquoA Giant in Jets and Foreign Policyrdquo New York Times 17 December 1996 177 NASA ldquoSigning Ceremony To Initiate Development of Revolutionary Aircraft Enginesrdquo news release N96-80 10 December 1996 178 Cornell University ldquoCarl Sagan Cornell Astronomer Dies Today (Dec 20) in Seattlerdquo news release 20 December 1996 United Press International ldquoAstronomer Carl Sagan Has Diedrdquo 20 December 1996 179 Reuters ldquoRussia Launches Satellite with Monkeys Insectsrdquo 24 December 1996

49


The Clipper Graham (DC-XA) Incident Investigation Board released its final report concerning the explosion of the vehicle at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico The Board chaired by former astronaut Vance Brand determined that a disconnected brake line on the secondary landing gear had prevented the gear from fully extending The DC-XA a prototype developed by McDonnell Douglas for NASA had flown successfully in its fourth test flight on 31 July 1996 before failing on landing NASArsquos director of space transportation noted that the failure which occurred as part of ongoing research into reusable launch vehicles had strengthened NASArsquos resolve to reduce costs and to achieve efficient reusability safety and reliability ideally using a combination of automation and human control180

9 January NASA reported that one of the two monkeys sent into space aboard the Russian Bion-11 flight in December 1996 had died upon completing postmission tests in Moscow Both NASA and the Russian Space Agency announced that they would investigate the death According to observers both monkeys aboard the mission returned to Earth alert and active The purpose of the flight was to investigate further the effects of spaceflight on the musculoskeletal system181

12 January In the first spaceflight of 1997 Shuttle Atlantis launched for a linkup mission with the Mir space station Mission STS-81 was the fifth Shuttle voyage to bring supplies and new crew members to the Russian space station Atlantis carried the SPACEHAB module in the payload bay of its orbiter with experiments for Atlantisrsquos crew as well as equipment for Mir Michael A Baker making his fourth Shuttle flight commanded the mission with Brent W Jett Jr serving as Pilot Astronaut Jerry M Linenger was also aboard set to replace astronaut John E Blaha as the representative of the United States aboard Mir Blaha had spent nearly four months aboard the orbiting station roughly the same tenure planned for Linenger So that Atlantis could rendezvous with Mir the Shuttle had launched at precisely 427 am (EST) Atlantis would spend two days orbiting periodically firing its engines to draw closer to Mir approximately 240 miles (386 kilometers) above Earth The United States and Russia planned for the ShuttlendashMir missions to contribute to the international teamrsquos development of procedures and techniques for use on the International Space Station (ISS) NASA and the Russian Space Agency referred to the missions as Phase I of the ISS effort182

13 January An international team of astronomers announced the discovery of three black holes in three nondescript galaxies suggesting that nearly all galaxies may in fact have massive black holes Using NASArsquos Hubble Space Telescope (HST) the researchers took a census of 27 galaxies to find a series of black holes massive enough to consume millions of Sun-like stars The findings which the scientists presented in full at the 189th meeting of the American Astronomical Society provided insight into the origin and evolution of galaxies as well as clarifying the role of quasars

180 NASA ldquoClipper Graham Incident Report Releaserdquo news release 97-3 7 January 1997 181 Associated Press ldquoRussian Space Monkey Multik Diesrdquo 12 January 1997 NASA ldquoMonkey Dies After Completing 14-Day Bion Missionrdquo news release 97-8 9 January 1997 182 NASA ldquoFifth ShuttlendashMir Docking Flight Highlights STS-81 Missionrdquo news release 97-2 January 1996 William Harwood ldquoAtlantis Roars into Orbit Begins Chasing Mir for Tuesday Linkuprdquo Washington Post 13 January 1997 Associated Press ldquoAtlantis en Route to Russian Station After lsquoGorgeous Launchrsquordquo 12 January 1997

50


in the galaxy Douglas O Richstone of the University of Michigan who led the research team stated that two of the black holes had ldquoweighed inrdquo at 50 million and 100 million solar masses respectively Scientists remained divided on why black holes exist so abundantly in space One theory suggested was that at the center of most or all galaxies supermassive black holes exist where gases ignite to the hottest temperatures known sending nearby stars spiraling in new directions Ralph Narayan of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics called the black holes ldquothe ultimate victory of gravity183

14 January Henry C Ferguson an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore Maryland announced the discovery of stars residing outside of any defined galaxy Scientists had long suspected that such stars existed but Ferguson and his team were the first to confirm the theories They did so using images captures by the HST which revealed as many as 600 stars in the seemingly blank spaces among the Virgo cluster of galaxies approximately 60 million light-years away from Earth Ferguson suspected that many more stars⎯perhaps as many as 1 trillion Sun-like stars⎯are adrift in the galaxies of Virgo The astronomers theorized that galactic mergers or the tidal forces of nearby galaxies had displaced the stars from their home galaxies184

15 January Shuttle Atlantis safely docked with the Russian space station Mir while both spacecraft orbited at speeds of more than 17500 miles (28000 kilometers) per hour Russian cosmonauts greeted the six-person American crew with the traditional Russian welcoming gift of bread and salt Communication problems delayed the opening of the connection hatch temporarily before American astronaut John E Blaha who had been aboard Mir for four months was able to greet his fellow compatriots and his replacement Blaha reported that the arriving Shuttle looked like a ldquoshiny starrdquo as it approached Mir On hearing Atlantisrsquos approach Blaha ready to go home reported ldquoAll bags are packed Ready for transferrdquo NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin took the opportunity to congratulate Blaha on his contributions to space exploration and to improved international relations ldquoWe spent 50 years aiming weapons at each otherrdquo Goldin stated and he praised the United States and Russia for cooperating in sustaining Mir and planning for the ISS185

16 January Johnson Space Center (JSC) awarded BRSP Inc a US$128 million five-year contract to provide base-operation support services including plant maintenance and operations logistics support and security services for JSCrsquos Houston Texas facility BRSP a joint venture of Brown and Root Services and Pioneer Contract Services had formed to bid for the JSC contract186

183 Paul Recer ldquoAstronomers Find Stronger Evidence of Massive Black Holesrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 14 January 1997 NASA ldquoMassive Black Holes Dwell in Most Galaxies According to Hubble Censusrdquo news release 97-9 12 January 1997 184 John Noble Wilford ldquoHubble Detects Stars that Belong to No Galaxyrdquo New York Times 15 January 1997 185 Associated Press ldquoAtlantis and Mir Make Docking Astronauts Meet for Crew Swaprdquo 15 January 1997 Associated Press ldquoAtlantis Closes in for Late-Night Docking with Russian Stationrdquo 14 January 1997 186 NASA ldquoBRSP Chosen for JSC Base Operation Contractrdquo news release C97-b 16 January 1997

51


Fred C Adams and Gregory P Laughlin astrophysicists at the University of Michigan presented their theory of a ldquoDying Universerdquo at the American Astronomic Society conference Adams and Laughlin had projected the future of the universe based upon quantitative theory concluding that the Earth would die out with a whimper According to their theory the Sun will eventually die out and the light of all stars will vanish The projection was so far off in the distance (10000 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years from now) that it drew a mixture of criticism amusement and intrigue from the scientific community Adams and Laughlin insisted that recently acquired insights into cosmic evolution had allowed them to draw conclusions about the end of the universe albeit in broad terms Previously scientists had lacked even the basic data and theoretical framework necessary to undertake the task The two researchers emphasized that they made no claim to foresee when the universe would end but rather offered the first long-term science-based deduction on how the universe would evolve through four periods of expansion⎯the star-filled era (the present) the degenerate era the black-hole era and the dark era The ultimate result of such a progression was too difficult to estimate according to the scholars187

NASA announced that planned major modifications of Space Shuttle Atlantis as well as routine inspections would take place at the Boeing Companyrsquos facility in Palmdale California rather than at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida United Space Alliance the company contracted for the maintenance and operation of the Shuttle program had recommended the changes According to estimates of the US General Accounting Office completing the renovations in California rather than in Florida would cost NASA an additional US$20 million because of higher labor costs NASA explained that if the engineers had done the work in Florida the launch schedule at KSC along with the need for Atlantis to make a prolonged stay for extensive modifications would have threatened future Shuttle flights The changes planned including rerouting the Shuttlersquos fuel lines involved more than routine maintenance NASA also pointed out that its most experienced engineers worked at the Palmdale facility and that workers at the facility had already made similar modifications to Shuttles Discovery and Endeavour Moreover NASA maintained that permitting KSC to focus on Shuttle launches and missions would be the most efficient use of its resources Nevertheless immediately after the announcement some observers criticized NASArsquos continued use of Boeingrsquos private facility in preference to that of the government-owned KSC NASArsquos previous intimation that the Palmdale facility would be ldquomothballedrdquo for Shuttle repair and maintenance intensified criticsrsquo reaction to the announcement188

17 January NASA released images taken from Galileo as it soared just 430 miles (690 kilometers) above the surface of Jupiterrsquos moon Europa The images revealed the apparent traces of massive ice volcanoes According to early analysis of the pictures ice volcanoes and the movement of tectonic plates had reshaped the surface of Europa one of the bodies in the universe that

187 John Noble Wilford ldquoAt Other End of lsquoBig Bangrsquo Finale May Be Big Whimperrdquo New York Times 16 January 1997 Tim Friend ldquoWersquove Got 100 Trillion Years Until lsquoLights Outrsquo in Universerdquo USA Today 16 January 1997 Associated Press ldquoEnd of It Allrdquo 16 January 1996 188 Seth Borenstein ldquoDespite Boost in Cost Atlantis To Get Tuneup in Californiardquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 17 January 1997 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Atlantis Modification Work To Be Performed at Palmdale Facilityrdquo news release 97-11 16 January 1997 Todd Halvorson ldquoAtlantis Overhaul To Be Done Out Westrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 17 January 1997

52


scientists believed might once have hosted life The presence of water organic compounds and adequate heat all of which would be present if ice volcanoes existed on the moon had led scientists to focus on Europa as a location for possible development of life According to Galileo team member Robert J Sullivan the apparent traces of ice volcanoes supported the even more significant possibility that an ocean might exist below the surface of Europa Because NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) managed the Galileo Mission the scientific community credited JPL with providing the vital new images of the surfaces of Europa and Jupiter that had led to further discussion about the possibility of life beyond Earth189

21 January Astronaut John E Blaha just returning from a four-month stay aboard the Mir space station reported that he had experienced feelings of depression and anxiety during his long deployment in space Blaha indicated that the conditions aboard Mir rather than any elements of the space environment had caused his difficulty According to Blaha the lack of private quarters for US astronauts who unlike the Russian cosmonauts did not have even small personal quarters was one of the most difficult aspects of his stay aboard Mir He also reported that although relations with his Russian counterparts always had remained respectful the tension of getting to know men who spoke a different language in such tight quarters created ldquoanother element of psychological pressure and stressrdquo aside from the inevitable feelings of isolation Blaha reported that he had experienced psychological depression especially during his first month aboard the Russian space station He made these remarks aboard Shuttle Atlantis as it returned him to Earth in the course of radio communications with four people living inside an airtight chamber at JSC in Houston who were taking part in a 60-day experiment for future ISS deployments190

22 January John E Blaha became the first astronaut to leave the US Space Shuttle carried by medical personnel Blaha was experiencing weakness upon his return to Earthrsquos gravitational conditions and NASArsquos doctors wanted to gauge immediately the effects of long-term weightlessness on his body Blaha remarked upon landing that he could hardly move saying that he was ldquoabsolutely stunnedrdquo at the difficulty of returning to a gravity-controlled environment NASArsquos doctors focused specifically on Blaharsquos dizziness and on his weakened bones and muscles hoping to learn how to improve health plans for astronauts living aboard the ISS Blaha had maintained an arduous schedule of exercise aboard Mir to mitigate the weakening effects of the weightless environment In addition he had made the return flight aboard Atlantis lying down in a Shuttle seat to minimize the crush of gravity191

23 January NASA announced the promotion of Gretchen W McClain to the position of Acting Director of Space Station Requirements As Director McClain took over responsibility for establishing

189 NASA ldquoIce Volcanoes Reshape Europarsquos Chaotic Surfacerdquo news release 97-12 17 January 1997 190 Associated Press ldquoAstronaut Tells of Down Side to Space Liferdquo New York Times 22 January 1997 191 William Harwood ldquoAtlantis Astronaut Wobbly on His Return to Gravityrdquo Washington Post 23 January 1997 Associated Press ldquoAstronaut Carried off Shuttle a First for NASArdquo 23 January 1997 Associated Press ldquoReturning Astronaut Sheds Right Stuff Image Is Carried off Shuttlerdquo 22 January 1997

53


policy and standards for the ISS as NASA continued to plan for the space station with ongoing support from the Russian Space Agency the European Space Agency Japan and Canada192

24 January NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin named Roy D Bridges Jr retired US Air Force Major General and Shuttle astronaut as Director of KSC Goldin called Bridges ldquothe right person to take KSC into the next centuryrdquo As Director of KSC Bridges assumed responsibility for the only site for launches of the Shuttle At the time of Bridgesrsquos appointment about 2000 employees worked at KSC along with 14000 contractors Bridgesrsquos appointment followed years of highly decorated service in the US Air Force and NASA Graduating with distinction from the US Air Force Academy he had served in several leadership positions in the Air Force and had received recognition as a distinguished graduate of the US Air Force Pilot Training and Test Pilot Schools Among other awards he had received the Distinguished Service Medal the Defense Service Medal with oak leaf cluster the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters the Meritorious Service Medal the US Air Force Commendation Medal and NASArsquos Flight Space Medal193

FEBRUARY 1997

3 February Space News reported that the Italian Space Agency had decided not to participate in construction of the International Space Station (ISS) because of NASArsquos insistence that Italy meet previously established deadlines The Italian firm Alenia Aerospazio had expressed interest in building on behalf of Italy two nodes the pieces of hardware used to connect different sections of the orbiting laboratory The Italian Space Agency had requested more time to investigate the feasibility of participating after it determined that funding the $150 million project solely in return for additional future use of the ISS might strain its budget for other scientific projects Gretchen W McClain Acting Director of Space Station Requirements said that although NASA regretted the loss of Italyrsquos participation in the ISS placing the project on hold while the Italian Space Agency made its decision would result in significant schedule shortfalls The development highlighted the difficulty of fostering international participation and at the same time maintaining the target delivery date of the ISS194

5 February Flight International published a story claiming that more than 10 years after the explosion of Challenger aerospace engineer Ali Abu Taha had discovered new evidence in Time-Life photographs demonstrating that a breach and a fire in Challengerrsquos right solid rocket booster (SRB) had caused the explosion One photograph taken about 20 seconds after liftoff revealed a 3-meter-long (10-foot-long) flame issuing from an SRB joint and another clearly showed a white object separating from the same SRB seconds later The discovery seemed to support Taharsquos controversial theory that the booster had caught fire at liftoff and burned continuously until the explosion occurred In contrast to Tahas findings which focused on dynamic liftoff

192 NASA ldquoNASA Names Acting Space Station Directorrdquo news release 97-15 23 January 1997 193 NASA ldquoRoy Bridges Selected as KSCrsquos New Center Directorrdquo news release 97-17 24 January 1997 194 Peter B de Selding and William Harwood ldquoItalian Nodes for Station Unlikelyrdquo Space News 3minus9 February 1997

54


loads the congressionally mandated Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident (Rogers Commission) had reported that faulty O-rings caused the tragedy Automatic cameras set up around the Cape Canaveral Florida launch site had taken the photographs that Taha used as evidence for his theory images never released to the public Taharsquos photographic analysis also revealed that the explosion had propelled Challengerrsquos crew compartment thousands of meters away from the explosion partially explaining why investigators had taken 40 days to locate the shell Taha suggested that a shock wave had killed the crew instantly although NASA had never found evidence of a shock wave News of the photographs and of Taharsquos research kept alive the debate surrounding the decade-old accident195

6 February President William J Clinton released his budget proposal which included a request for US$75 million to develop the Space Infrared Telescope Facility NASA had argued that the infrared telescope would aid scientists in answering some of the universersquos most fundamental questions including what is the energy source for the universersquos brightest stars and where is the universersquos missing dark matter Presidential support for the initiative led NASA to hope that it might finally receive the funding necessary to begin building the last of four space-based telescopes proposed as a part of the Great Observatories program In addition to the highly publicized Hubble Space Telescope (HST) NASA had successfully placed in orbit the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and had immediate plans to launch the nearly completed X-ray Astrophysics Facility NASA expected the four telescopes using various kinds of cosmic radiation to survey the atmosphere would provide an unprecedented view of the universe The four telescopes operating together would allow us ldquoto look at the universe at all ages at oncerdquo explained Michael Werner a scientist at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Upon the programrsquos conception in 1991 the National Academy of Sciences had called the Great Observatories the ldquohighest priority for any major new program in space-based astronomyrdquo but a steady stream of budget cuts had made it increasingly difficult to realize the project196

NASA Administer Daniel S Goldin praised the Clinton administrationrsquos budget proposal for 1998 as a sign that NASArsquos deep budget cuts were leveling off NASA had braced itself for a budget as low as US$131 billion and therefore found President William J Clintonrsquos US$135 billion proposal a pleasant surprise The request still entailed a US$200 million budget cut and Congress might reduce the budget further Nevertheless Goldin responded to the proposed budget exuberantly exclaiming ldquoHoly mackerel⎯this is a great programrdquo and remarking that for the first time during his five-year tenure NASA could hope for budgetary stability The proposal also projected that NASArsquos budget in 2000 would be approximately US$132 billion rather than the US$116 billion forecast in previous Clinton administration proposals NASA planned to absorb the small reduction in funding by increasing efficiency especially in the Shuttle program having recently transferred management of the program to the privately held United Space Alliance NASA officials believed that NASA could continue sending up seven or eight Shuttle missions annually if budget trends continued to stabilize On the day of the budget announcement however a NASA advisory panel warned once again that a drastic decrease in

195 Tim Furness ldquoNew Evidence Reveals Fire on Doomed Challengerrsquos Boosterrdquo Flight International 5minus11 February 1997 196 Paul Hoversten ldquoNASA Seeks $75 Million for Another Eye in the Skyrdquo USA Today 6 February 1997

55


the Shuttlersquos funding would compromise its safety Nevertheless Goldin maintained that the proposal would allow NASA to continue fostering ldquofaster better cheaperrdquo science197

Vice President Albert A Gore Jr met with Russiarsquos Prime Minister Viktor S Chernomyrdin to discuss among other topics the United Statesrsquo concern that the Russian Space Agencyrsquos lack of funding might derail plans for the ISS US officials declared that funding was the primary issue in the construction of the ISS ldquoWe have no doubts about their science and engineering proficiency Where we have concerns relates to adequate funding on the Russian siderdquo said one American space leader Although the ISS had received contributions from the United States Russia Japan Europe and Canada Russian construction stoppages on a crucial ISS component already had delayed the project Before the Gore-Chernomyrdin meeting NASA received assurances from the Russian Space Agency that despite financial difficulties Russia would maintain its commitment to the project During the meeting the leaders agreed upon a joint statement committing the Russians to a new deadline Gore stated that he believed the summitrsquos reaffirmation of previous commitments would satisfy members of Congress who were critical of Russiarsquos trustworthiness198

7 February NASA announced that it would join an international consortium of space agencies to support the launch of a Japanese satellite designed to create the largest astronomical instrument ever The launch of the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Space Observatory would create a radio telescope more than twice the diameter of the Earth giving astronomers their sharpest view yet of the universe Astronomers praised the Japanese-led launch as a significant advance for space research VLBI satellites would allow radio astronomers to link together widely separated radio telescopes so that they would function as a single instrument with extraordinarily sharp resolving power The farther apart the telescopes the greater would be the imagersquos resolution NASA equated the power of the new tool with the ability to see a grain of rice in Tokyo from Los Angeles Scientists hoped that the new tool would allow for further exploration of active galaxies with massive black holes Researchers also hoped that the instrument would foster understanding of the mysterious quasars which pour out tremendous amounts of energy and host or create black holes Creating the enormous VLBI network involved 40 radio telescopes from 15 nations Japanrsquos Institute of Space and Astronautical Science led the international consortium of science agencies including NASArsquos JPL the US National Science Foundationrsquos National Radio Astronomy Observatory the Canadian Space Agency the Australia Telescope National Facility the European VLBI Network and Europersquos Joint Institute for VLBI199

US astronaut Jerry M Linenger NASArsquos temporary resident aboard Russiarsquos Mir space station became the second American to ride aboard the three-person Soyuz capsule that had delivered the cosmonauts to Mir Cosmonauts Valery G Korzun and Alexander Y Kaleri Linengerrsquos Russian

197 Anne Eisele ldquoBudget Plan Brings Stability by 2000rdquo Space News 10minus16 February 1997 Larry Wheeler ldquoNASA Makes Do on Slimmer Budget Florida Today (Brevard FL) 7 February 1997 Sean Holton ldquoNASA Cheers Budget that Cuts Agency Only a Bitrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 7 February 1997 198 Associated Press ldquoUS-Russiardquo 6 February 1997 Reuters ldquoGore-Chernomyrdin Talks on NATO Space Summitrdquo 5 February 1997 Cragg Hines ldquoRussia Pledges To Pay Its Share of Space Stationrdquo Houston Chronicle 9 February 1997 199 NASA ldquoLaunch Will Create a Radio Telescope Larger than Earthrdquo news release 97-24 7 February 1997 NASA Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year1996 Activities (Washington DC 1997) p 25

56


partners aboard Mir took Linenger for a short ride around Mir to free a docking station for the new Soyuz vehicle that Russia would soon launch In allowing an American astronaut aboard the Russian craft Russia took another step with the United States to foster a cooperative postcommunist relationship between the two countries200

10 February The Russian Space Agency launched Soyuz TM-25 carrying a crew of two Russian Space Agency cosmonauts Vasili V Tsibliyev and Alexander I Lazutkin and German astronaut Reinhold Ewald to the Mir space station from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan The cosmonauts would become Mirrsquos new long-term crew and the German astronaut would return with the retiring crew in two weeks Germany had paid the Russian Space Agency millions of dollars to carry Reinhold Ewald aboard the Shuttle to Mir201

NASA researchers astronauts and scholars gathered in Washington DC for a conference of the National Academy of Sciences disclosing and discussing details of experiments conducted aboard the Shuttle during two 1996 missions The event commemorated the one-year anniversaries of the second US Microgravity Laboratory and the third US Microgravity Payload Scientists predicted that discoveries made aboard the Shuttle flights in 1996 would eventually lead to technological advances Research on numerous topics from the climate of the universe to human biology could lead to production of cheaper metals and alloys or new synthetic drugs Highlights from the research presentations included the announcement of the discovery that space-grown crystals are of much higher quality than those grown on Earth the description of experiments intended to uncover the effect of space on the production of metal and alloys and the presentation of evidence that the microgravity environment of space had enabled scientists to make more precise measurements of the physical properties of elemental gas202

11 February Shuttle Discovery carrying a crew of seven astronauts launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida on a mission to service the HST NASA planned the 10-day Shuttle Mission STS-82 to upgrade significantly the scientific capabilities of HST as well as to perform standard maintenance on the US$2 billion instrument The spaceflight was the second servicing mission for HST since its deployment in April 1990 aboard Shuttle Discoveryrsquos Mission STS-31 The astronauts planned to conduct at least four spacewalks to install new components such as the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer A NASA scientist described the improvements as ldquoreplacing 1970rsquos technology with 1990rsquos technologyrdquo In addition to the work conducted on the HST Discoveryrsquos crew planned to move the telescope a few miles farther into the atmosphere improving its chances for a longer operating life Astronomers hypothesized that the potential gains from refurbishing the HST outweighed the risks of tampering with its already spectacular abilities justifying the US$800 million cost of the mission The head of the Harvardshy

200 Association Press ldquoAstronaut Rides Soyuzrdquo 8 February 1997 201 Reuters ldquoRussians Launch 3 into Spacerdquo 11 February 1997 202 NASA ldquoSignificant Discoveries from Space Shuttle Experiments To Be Presented at Conferencerdquo news release 97-23 5 February 1997

57


Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics speculated that the refurbished HST could lead to ldquoa whole different kind of sciencerdquo203

12 February The White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security chaired by Vice President Albert A Gore Jr released its recommendations for reforming the United Statesrsquo aviation industry The Commission challenged NASA the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the US Department of Defense to combine their efforts with the goal of reducing aircraft accident rates by 80 percent over the next five years NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin voiced immediate support for the challenge explaining ldquoWersquore looking for solutions that will save livesrdquo He pledged NASArsquos commitment to interagency cooperation and committed US$500 million in NASA funds to achieve a major reduction in aircraft-related fatalities Both NASA and the FAA cited previous successful collaboration efforts between their agencies The Gore Commissionrsquos most controversial recommendation was the use of computerized databases to identify potential terrorists Critics quickly called the plan an exercise in profiling which would foster biased treatment especially toward Arab Americans and passengers with Arab-sounding names Other safety proposals included requiring children under the age of two to sit in their own seats rather than on the lap of an adult as the airlines had long permitted The Commission further suggested that user fees rather than ticket taxes fund air-traffic control that airports deploy a new satellite-based air-traffic-control system as soon as possible and that airports make all airmail packages weighing more than 1 pound (05 kilograms) subject to inspection In total the Commission recommended 53 changes to the current system204

19 February Discoveryrsquos crew released the HST from the Shuttlersquos cargo bay after nearly a week of maintenance and refurbishing work The astronauts had conducted a fifth spacewalk one more than NASA had originally planned to place a makeshift patch on the HSTrsquos peeling insulation ldquoItrsquos not the Hubble Space Telescope Itrsquos really Hubble Space Telescope IIrdquo remarked NASArsquos chief Hubble scientist upon releasing the telescope NASA deemed the mission a complete

205success

20 February Astronaut and lawmaker US Senator John H Glenn Jr (D-OH) on the 35th anniversary of his journey as the first American to orbit Earth announced that he would retire from the US Senate at the conclusion of his fourth term On 20 February 1962 Glenn had orbited Earth three times symbolizing a hard-fought achievement in the United Statesrsquo effort to catch up with the Soviet Union in the space race Glenn first elected to the Senate from Ohio in 1974 made the

203 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Mission STS-82mdashPress Kitrdquo news release 97-18 February 1997 John Noble Wilford ldquoShuttle Starts Space Telescope Missionrdquo New York Times 12 February 1997 Associated Press ldquoImproved Hubble Telescope To Give Astronomers New View of the Universerdquo 8 February 1997 204 NASA ldquoNASA FAA and DOD Challenged To Achieve White House Commission Goal To Reduce Aircraft Accidentsrdquo news release 97-26 12 February 1997 John Mintz ldquoGore Panel Proposes Aviation Safety Stepsrdquo Washington Post 13 February 1997 Robert Davis ldquoFAA Ready To Depart on lsquoClear Path of Actionrsquordquo USA Today 13 February 1997 Robert Davis ldquo53 Air Safety Changes Urgedrdquo USA Today 13 February 1997 205 Associated Press ldquoHubble Released To Search Universerdquo 20 February 1997 Associated Press ldquoLooking for Answersrdquo 19 February 1997

58


announcement at Muskingum College in New Concord Ohio joking that since ldquothere is still no cure for the common birthdayrdquo he intended to retire at age 75206

21 February NASA announced that a plan for collaborative research and development between NASA and five other government agencies might result in the creation of an Internet connection a million times faster than home computer modems The Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative dedicated US$300 million and three years to developing the NGI to fulfill the promise President William J Clinton had made in his State of the Union address ldquoWe must build the second generation of the Internet so that our leading universities and national laboratories can communicate at speeds one thousand times faster than today to develop new medical treatments new sources of energy new ways of working togetherrdquo NASA sites designated for early trials of NGI connections included Ames Research Center Goddard Space Flight Center Langley Research Center Lewis Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory207

Shuttle Discovery ended Mission STS-82 with a safe landing at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida The early morning landing occurred later than NASA had planned because of cloudy weather in Florida NASA praised Discoveryrsquos crew for its work refurbishing the HST208

23 February A small fire broke out aboard the Mir space station raising new questions about the fitness of the aging station for occupation and research The six crew members on board quickly extinguished the fire the result of a faulty air purification unit The astronauts and cosmonauts estimated that the fire had burned for about 90 seconds forcing the crew to don respirator masks Mir continued to function normally after the fire although the heat had melted several cables209

MARCH 1997

2 March Two Russian cosmonauts and a German astronaut returned safely to Russia after tenures aboard the Russian space station Mir The cosmonauts had spent more than six months in space and Reinhold Ewald of Germany had spent two weeks aboard Mir as a paying guest of the Russian Space Agency Ewald conducted geophysical astrophysical and medical experiments during his stay The German Space Agency paid about US$60 million for Ewaldrsquos trip providing a much-needed infusion of capital for Russiarsquos space program210

3 March

206 Paul Souhrada ldquoGlenn 75 Will Retire Citing lsquoNo Cure for Common Birthdayrsquordquo Washington Times 21 February 1997 NASA ldquoGlenn Orbits the Earth 35 Years Ago Todayrdquo video advisory V97-12 20 February 1997 207 NASA ldquoNext Generation Internet a Million Times Faster than Home Computer Modemsrdquo news release 97-29 21 February 1997 208 William Harwood ldquoDiscovery Lands Shuttle Back from Hubble Repair Missionrdquo Chicago Sun-Times 22 February 1997 209 NASA ldquoSmall Fire Extinguished on Mirrdquo news release 97-30 24 February 1997 Associated Press ldquoFire on Russian Space Station Doused but Raises Concernrdquo 25 February 1997 210 Associated Press ldquoRussia-Spacerdquo 2 March 1997

59


NASA commemorated the 25th anniversary of the still-orbiting Pioneer 10 space probe Launched 2 March 1972 Pioneer 10 was the functioning probe farthest from Earth at approximately 6 billion miles (96 billion kilometers) away NASA originally had intended the probe to orbit for 21 months but the spacecraft had continued to perform remarkably well and efficiently long after its designated mission The probe completed its planned objective of surveying Jupiter in 1972 after that NASA launched Pioneer 10 into space at 86000 miles (138000 kilometers) per hour Since then scientists had tracked the probe learning more about magnetic fields solar wind cosmic particles and ultraviolet glow In June 1983 Pioneer 10 became the first human-made object to leave the solar system On the day marking Pioneer 10rsquos 25th year in space the probe still broadcast ldquocrystal-clear datardquo to the NASA control room on Earth NASA did not plan a 26th anniversary for the probe explaining that Pioneer 10rsquos pulse was finally growing so weak that it could no longer facilitate significant scientific experiments211

Design News honored as its Engineer of the Year Bernard P Dagarin the key design engineer behind the Galileo space probe which had successfully navigated Jupiterrsquos atmosphere in 1996 Dagarin had begun working on prototypes for the Jupiter probe in 1978 when NASA awarded Hughes Space and Communications Company the initial Galileo contract According to Design News ldquoNever before had a spacecraft been asked to survive such a long and difficult missionrdquo Galileo had achieved the near impossible Not only was Galileorsquos Jupiter mission a complete success achieving the desired data but the mission had also become the capstone of Dagarinrsquos decorated career212

4 March The unpiloted cargo spacecraft Progress M-33 failed in its planned docking with the Mir space station forcing Russian space officials to decide whether to allow the cargo craft to burn up in the atmosphere or to try again to connect with Mir The docking of Progress M-33 which only had some surplus fuel aboard was not of critical importance to Mir but Russian Space Agency scientists had planned to use the craftrsquos docked mass to adjust the trajectory of Mir News of the failure of the Progressrsquos docking tempered Russiarsquos celebration of its first satellite launch from a new cosmodrome in Svobody occurring on the same day On 6 March the saga ended when Russian officials decided to let the Progress M-33 drift off to burn up in the atmosphere213

6 March NASA researchers at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville Alabama announced a plan to collaborate with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley California to explore the potential of the substance Aerogel which has tremendous insulating capabilities Scientists said that they were optimistic that they could manipulate the material rendering it transparent and therefore especially useful in constructing energy-efficient windows for homes and automobiles During the 1930s a researcher at Stanford University had discovered Aerogel

211 Associated Press ldquoPioneer 10rdquo 3 March 1997 USA Today ldquoNASA To Retire Oldest Interplanetary Explorerrdquo 3 March 1997 212 Lawrence D Maloney ldquoGalileo Probersquos Guardian Angelrdquo Design News 52 no 5 (3 March 1997) 74minus83 213 Reuters ldquoRussia May Try New Space Docking or Let Craft Burnrdquo 5 March 1997 Reuters ldquoRussian Space Launch Marred by Failed Dockingrdquo 4 March 1996 Reuters ldquoRussia To Scrap Spacecraft after Docking Snagrdquo 6 March 1997

60


often called frozen smoke because of its hazy appearance NASA engineers had used Aerogel as an insulating agent aboard Mars Pathfinder in 1996 Although the substance is the lightest solid known⎯only three times the density of air a block of Aerogel weighing less than 1 pound (05 kilograms) can support 05 tons (450 kilograms or 045 tonnes) Aerogelrsquos large internal surface area which disperses heat throughout its structure causes the materialrsquos extreme insulating capability⎯a 1-inch-thick (25-centimeter-thick) Aerogel window would offer the same insulation value as 15 panes of glass John M Horack Assistant Laboratory Director for Space and Science Communications at MSFC called the development of Aerogel ldquoa great example of how NASA space research generates scientific knowledge that can be used to improve the quality of life on Earthrdquo214

A panel of scientists at the National Research Council issued a report warning NASA of the slight possibility that a mission to Mars might actually bring microbes back to the United States Although their report clearly stated that the so-called Microbe Peril was unlikely the panel argued nevertheless that a probe returning from an exploratory mission to Mars could possibly serve as a conduit to bring Martian germs back to Earth The panel issued its warning because of NASArsquos plan to send a mission to Mars to obtain samples of substances on the planet and because NASA scientists had recently identified signs of possible microscopic life on a meteorite The panelrsquos report stated ldquoIf life forms ever existed on Mars either by having been formed in an independent origin or having been transferred there from Earth it is possible that they could have continued to exist up to the present timerdquo215

NASA announced the selection of four industry partners to study and develop a new Earth-imaging radar system The proposed LightSAR system would use advanced technologies to reduce the cost and increase the efficiency of radar-based satellites which gather scientific data and provide commercial remote sensing Project Manager Steven Bard of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) pointed out the unique team approach planned for the project NASA intended to work with industry partners from the start to assess the potential commercial market for LightSAR products and services and to share the cost of developing the expensive new technology with private companies The four primary contractors selected were DBA Systems Inc Lockheed Martin Astronautics Research and Development Laboratories and Vexcel Corporation216

7 March Edward M Purcell 1952 Nobel Prize winner in physics and long-time researcher at Harvard University died Purcell discovered a means to detect the extremely weak magnetism of the atomic nucleus making it possible to ldquolisten to the whisperings of hydrogen through the universerdquo Purcell had served as President of the American Physical Society In 1967 Purcell had won the Oersted Medal of the American Association of Physics Teachers and in 1979 he had won the National Medal of Science At Harvard Purcell held the position of Gerhard Gade

214 NASA ldquoNASA Research in Space May Redesign Household Windowsrdquo news release 97-34 6 March 1997 215 Warren E Leary ldquoMicrobe Peril from Mars Is Possibility Panel Warnsrdquo New York Times 7 March 1997 Associated Press ldquoScientists Warn on Mars Bugsrdquo 7 March 1997 Mark Carreau ldquoFear of Martiansrdquo Houston Chronicle 7 March 1997 216 NASA ldquoTeams Selected for Studies of Potential Partnership with NASA To Develop New Earth Imaging Radar Systemrdquo news release 97-35 6 March 1997

61


University Professor retiring from the university in 1977 Of his Nobel Prizendashwinning research Purcell commented ldquoWe are dealing not merely with a new tool but with a new subject a subject I have called simply nuclear magnetismrdquo217

9 March Professional and amateur astronomers in northern China and in the eastern reaches of Russia witnessed the near-simultaneous occurrence of a total solar eclipse and an unimpeded view of Comet Hale-Bopp According to news reports tens of thousands of people crowded city streets and braved freezing temperatures to observe the spectacle many using pieces of smoked glass to protect their eyes Mohe County in Chinarsquos northern tip had banned the use of smoke-producing stoves and other heating devices to keep the air as clear as possible for the view Chinese television stations broadcast the event only the third time in recorded history when a full eclipse and the passing of a nearby comet had occurred simultaneously218

10 March NASA announced an agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the European construction of two docking nodes for the International Space Station (ISS) In exchange NASA agreed to launch the ESArsquos Columbus laboratory module The ldquolaunch-offset barter agreementrdquo was typical of the arrangements in progress to bring the ISS closer to fruition The ESA announced immediate plans for the Italian Space Agency to carry out the actual construction of the two nodes slated for mid-2000 launches In addition to the construction arrangement the ESA agreed to provide a variety of minor hardware including refrigeration units for the astronautsrsquo living space and for research areas of the ISS219

12 March NASA announced the completed construction of the Lunar Prospector spacecraft scheduled for launch in September 1997 Engineers had designed the craft to obtain the first compositional and gravity maps of the Moon G Scott Hubbard NASArsquos Lunar Prospector Mission Manager at Ames Research Center praised contractor Lockheed Martin for its efficient construction and for keeping project costs at forecasted levels NASA projected that the total cost to build Lunar Prospector and send it to the Moon would be about US$63 million Scientists explained the need to return to the Moon even though it was ldquoconqueredrdquo decades ago reminding the public that many important questions about the Moonrsquos history and its fundamental composition remained unexplored Researchers hoped that Lunar Prospectorrsquos planned one-year mission orbiting the Moon would create a detailed map of the Moonrsquos surface composition and gravitational and magnetic fields Lunar Prospector itself was compact⎯only 45 feet (137 meters) high 4 feet (122 meters) in diameter and weighing 660 pounds (300 kilograms) Even before its launch scientists hailed Lunar Prospector as a new type of pathfinder which had ldquomade history in terms of management style technical approach cost management and focused sciencerdquo Prospector used a gamma-ray spectrometer to provide maps of the composition of the Moon thereby allowing scientists to understand better the elements present in the surface layer of the Moon220

217ldquoEdward Purcell 84 Physicist Who Shared a Nobel Prizerdquo New York Times 10 March 1997 218 Associated Press ldquoComet Eclipse Dazzle Chinese Russiansrdquo 10 March 1997 219 NASA ldquoNASA-ESA Agreement Enhances Station with Additional Noderdquo news release 97-36 10 March 1997 220 NASA ldquoLunar Prospector Spacecraft Construction Completerdquo news release 97-38 12 March 1997

62


13 March As the public anticipation of the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp heightened NASA announced that NASA-supported researchers would use its vast resources⎯including spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)⎯to study the comet Scientists hoped that studying Hale-Bopp would lead to a greater general understanding of comets Because comets are composed of loosely packed dirt and ice experts consider them the best-preserved remnants of the early solar system NASA disclosed that the Wallops Flight Facility would launch four rockets using ultraviolet wavelengths to study Comet Hale-Bopp In addition the Ulysses spacecraft the joint project of NASA and the ESA which was already in orbit at the time would chart the effects of solar-wind conditions on comets However scientists also disclosed that the close proximity of Hale-Bopp to the Sun posed a danger to HSTrsquos sensitive detectors therefore they had determined to wait until a few months after the cometrsquos approach to Earth before tracking it with the telescope JPL planned to host a public event called Comet Chasers On the Trail of a Comet to bring scholars and the public together to discuss the significance of Comet HaleshyBopp221

New support emerged for NASA scientistsrsquo claim that a meteorite discovered in August 1996 held fossil evidence of primitive Martian life In an article in Science a group of researchers from California Institute of Technology and McGill University used magnetic studies to demonstrate that the findings on the meteorite were not as some critics had contended the result of a high-temperature environment that would have made life impossible ldquoWhat we are able to show from the magnetic studies is that these things [the fossil remnant that had excited the interest of Johnson Space Center geologists] couldnrsquot have been heated even to the boiling point of waterrdquo Although the scientists did not explicitly support NASArsquos earlier claim that the remnant provided evidence for bacterial life the teamrsquos discovery opened the intriguing possibility that remnants of primitive life could migrate from one planet to another222

NASA announced that through its Small Business Innovative Research program researchers had successfully used recycled plastic milk bottles to create a more effective lightweight insulation for clothing and blankets The material had the same honeycomb structure as that of the metal heat barriers used in spacecraft According to the principal investigator Steven D Miller of S D Miller and Associates ldquoThe blankets are better than wool or fleece because they are non-allergenic and they dry five times faster The new material is also four times warmer than wool in cold and damp conditionsrdquo The research team hypothesized that agencies such as the Red Cross or other emergency medical personnel eventually would be able to use the new material to warm patients more quickly After developing the product for space and commercial uses NASA planned to allow Millerrsquos company to pursue further commercialization opportunities without NASA funding223

221 NASA ldquoNASA Plans Comet Hale-Bopp Observing Campaign Activitiesrdquo news release N97-17 13 March 1996 222 Joseph L Kirschvink et al ldquoPaleomagnetic Evidence of a Low-Temperature Origin of Carbonate in the Martian Meteorite ALH84001rdquo Science 275 no 5306 (14 March 1997) 1629minus1634 Mark Carreau ldquoCalifornia Scientists Back NASArsquos Theory of Life on Marsrdquo Houston Chronicle 14 March 1997 John Noble Wilford ldquoStudy Backs Idea that Meteorite Hints of Life on Marsrdquo New York Times 14 March 1997 223 NASA ldquoNASA Technology Creates Market for Recycled Milk Bottlesrdquo news release 97-39 13 March 1997

63


NASA announced the establishment of a National Microgravity Center formed in conjunction with Case Western Reserve University and the Universities Space Research Association NASA selected Lewis Research Center (LERC) in Cleveland Ohio to lead its research efforts in the project Plans for the nationrsquos first center dedicated exclusively to microgravity research focused on five areas 1) research and technology development 2) science program outreach and development 3) scientific support 4) technology transfer to industry and 5) public education initiatives NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced the endeavor stating ldquoThe National Center for Microgravity Research on Fluids and Combustion represents a commitment to our goal to strengthen the partnership between NASA and our nationrsquos research community in universities and industry so that together we can increase the scientific and economic payoffs from NASArsquos Microgravity Science Programrdquo NASA selected Simon Ostrach a distinguished professor of engineering at Case Western University as Director of the National Microgravity Center As Director Ostrach would be responsible for managing the Centerrsquos staff of more than 30 people and for shaping an agenda of research that would take advantage of opportunities aboard the ISS224

20 March Japanrsquos National Space Development Agency (NASDA) unveiled its key contribution to the ISS two satellites named after stars⎯Orihime and Hikoboshi which Japan planned to launch aboard an H-2 rocket The satellites would make it easier to perform unpiloted docking experiments on the ISS Japanrsquos interest in robotic space research fueled the proposal which complemented NASDArsquos plan to build an unpiloted space shuttle to ferry Japanrsquos experiments to the ISS225

NASA awarded its 1996 Government Invention of the Year to a patented high-temperature seal developed for the National Aerospace Plane project Bruce M Steinetz and Paul J Sirocky of NASArsquos LERC directed the research The seal used ceramic and superalloy fibers braided into a malleable structure to seal high-temperature joints on airplanes and Shuttles The seal maintained its form in temperatures up to 2000degF (1090degC)226

22 March NASA marked the one-year anniversary of the United Statesrsquo continuous presence in space a tenure that began with the mission of astronaut Shannon W Lucid aboard the Mir space station Astronauts John E Blaha and Jerry M Linenger had followed Lucidrsquos stay NASA planned to maintain a continuous presence aboard Mir until 1998227

APRIL 1997

1 April The famed Comet Hale-Bopp made its closest approach to the Sun accelerating the cometrsquos process of shedding the gargantuan ice shards that scientists hypothesized might contain the basic ingredients necessary for life to begin Based on data gathered by researchers during the 20 months between the discovery of the comet and its approach to the Sun scientists theorized that

224 NASA ldquoNASA Establishes New National Microgravity Centerrdquo news release 97-40 13 March 1997 225 Reuters ldquoJapan Unveils Experimental Docking Satellitesrdquo 20 March 1997 226 NASA ldquoNASA Selects 1996 Government Invention of the Yearrdquo news release 97-47 20 March 1997 227 NASA ldquoAnniversary Marks Milestone of US Presence in Spacerdquo news release 97-45 17 March 1997

64


the outer layers of Comet Hale-Bopp probably contained methanol formaldehyde carbon monoxide hydrogen cyanide hydrogen sulfide and other carbon compounds Because of its proximity to the Sun many telescopes most significantly the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had to stop tracking the 25-mile-wide (40-kilometer-wide) comet to avoid damage to their sensitive instruments The approach of the comet was a scientific opportunity occurring once ldquoevery 200 years or sordquo according to Brian G Marsden of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Comet sightings thrilled amateur and professional astronomers alike as well as causing some paranoia In one tragically irrational response to its approach 39 members of the Heavenrsquos Gate religious community committed suicide under the delusion that they were about to catch a ride on a spaceship hidden behind the cometrsquos tail228

NASA announced that the newly refurbished and improved HST had allowed astronomers to observe the fading visible-light counterpart of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) a process that researchers called ldquoone of the most energetic and mysteriousrdquo in the universe The scientists speculated that the observable counterpart signified the existence of an unobservable catastrophic burst of gamma rays unleashing as much energy in a few seconds as the Sun does in 10 billion years The New Technology Telescope and the W M Keck Telescope added to the HST in 1997 had enabled scientists to make the observation According to Gerald J Fishman of Marshall Space Flight Center the lead investigator of NASArsquos Compton Gamma Ray Observatory astronomers could not overestimate the significance of the find even if the visible-light phenomenon was only an indicator of another unobservable phenomenon ldquoThis [discovery] opens up a whole new era in GRB researchrdquo Fishman explained ldquoWe now know that it is possible to see the fading optical emission by rapid follow-up observations with powerful telescopes With several more of these we should be able to narrow the models of what could be causing these gigantic outburstsrdquo229

4 April Shuttle Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida embarking on a mission primarily to conduct research on microgravity To understand the effect of the space environment on fire and the potential danger of a fire to the astronauts the mission crew planned to light more than 200 small controlled fires during the mission James D Halsell Jr commanded the Mission STS-83 crew and Susan L Still piloted Shuttle Columbia Still was the second American woman to pilot a Space Shuttle Mission Specialists Michael L Gernhardt and Donald A Thomas Payload Commander Janice E Voss and Payload Specialists Roger K Crouch and Gregory T Linteris completed the crew The Shuttle carried the Microgravity Science Laboratory in its payload and the crew planned dozens of experiments to ldquoserve as a bridge to Americarsquos future in spacerdquo In the course of conducting these experiments focused on processes necessary to carry out the long-duration research planned for the International Space Station (ISS) the astronauts hoped to create new research procedures and protocols The STS-83 marked the 22nd mission of Columbia The Shuttlersquos launch took place after a one-day delay so that engineers could install thermal insulation on two exposed Shuttle pipes230

228 William J Broad ldquoThe Cometrsquos Gift Hints of How Earth Came to Liferdquo New York Times 1 April 1997 229 NASA ldquoHubble Tracks the Fading Optical Counterpart of a Gamma-Ray Burstrdquo news release 97-63 1 April 1997 230 NASA ldquoMicrogravity Research Highlights Mission STS-83rdquo news release J97-8 April 1997 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Leaves on a Mission To Study Firerdquo 5 April 1997

65


6 April Astronauts aboard Columbia consulting with NASA ground support decided to cut short their planned 16-day mission because of the potential for an explosion in the Shuttlersquos electronic generator NASA decided to abort the mission after the crew had attempted for two days to fix the balky generator Despite the fact that the Shuttlersquos two other generators could provide enough power for the Shuttle NASArsquos procedure required the Shuttlersquos return to prevent subsequent problems Space Shuttle Program Manager Thomas W Holloway clarified that the astronauts faced no imminent danger and that terminating the mission was a precaution rather than an emergency ldquoThe conservative thing to do is land on Tuesdayrdquo Holloway said at a news conference Columbiarsquos early return to Earth in Mission STS-83 was only the third time in the history of the Shuttle program that NASA had ended a mission early The astronauts had time to complete only a few of the planned 33 experiments on the mission which cost nearly US$500 million231

8 April Satellite-based monitoring instruments owned by NASA and used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) documented startlingly low levels of ozone over the Arctic North Pole The measurements indicated ozone levels of nearly 40 percent below the levels found in 1979 and 1982 Scientists attributed the low ozone levels to a series of unusual meteorological conditions although they did not yet know the principal causes of the change232

Shuttle Columbia landed safely at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida less than three days after its liftoff The mission planned for 16 days ended early and the Shuttle completed the return flight without incident Columbia weighed more than 236000 pounds (107000 kilograms) at landing the heaviest Shuttle ever to land because of its load of unused supplies for experiments Almost immediately after the safe landing NASA officials began to consider repeating the flight as soon as possible to allow the Shuttle crew to accomplish its original objectives and to avoid the substantial cost of launching an entirely new mission233

9 April Michael H Carr of the US Geological Survey announced that the Galileo spacecraft had captured images revealing iceberg-like structures suggesting the presence of frozen water on Jupiterrsquos moon Europa The discovery provided strong support for the theory that an ocean once existed on the moonrsquos surface Astronomers at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory called the discovery ldquomind-blowingrdquo and ldquothe clearest evidence to date that there is liquid water and melting close to the surface of Europardquo Ronald Greeley the Arizona State University geologist who managed the Galileo imaging team described the structures in the Europa images as ldquoblocks of ice similar to those seen on the Earthrsquos polar seas during springtime thawsrdquo Greeley concluded that a ldquothin icy layer covering water or slushy icerdquo might possibly exist on Europarsquos surface The images revealed one possible ice formation that spread across Europarsquos surface in

231 William Harwood ldquoShuttle Flight Cut Short as Risk Persistsrdquo Washington Post 7 April 1997 Warren Leary ldquoPower Problem on Shuttle Forces a Tuesday Landingrdquo New York Times 7 April 1997 Associated Press ldquoDeteriorating Generator Cuts Short Missionrdquo 6 April 1997 232 NASA ldquoLow Ozone Measured over North Polerdquo news release 97-64 8 April 1997 233 William Harwood ldquoColumbia Lands After Aborted Missionrdquo Washington Post 9 April 1997

66


patches as wide as 4 miles (64 kilometers) Scientists disagreed on exactly how to interpret the images and on whether future exploration would be able to prove the presence of an ocean Nevertheless excitement over the findings spread throughout the research community In its use of the Galileo probe to explore Europa NASA continued its mission to search the universe for other environments suitable for life The Galileo probe almost lost the images when an antenna on the craft jammed slowing data transmission to Earth Galileo came within 363 miles (584 kilometers) of Europa to capture the highly celebrated pictures234

At a tense hearing of the US House Committee on Science and Technology NASA announced the necessity of a significant delay in the on-orbit assembly of the ISS NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin explained the delay ldquoWe knew from the outset that building the International Space Station was going to be tremendously challenging Space exploration is not easy or predictable We will work through this schedule issuerdquo NASA had scheduled the on-orbit construction to begin in November 1997 after Russia had launched Functional Cargo Block known by its Russian abbreviation FGB Inadequate funding for the Russian Space Agency however had delayed the construction of this ISS building block pushing back the overall schedule Russia had also delayed building the service module another key component of the ISS235 NASArsquos announcement invoked further criticism from members of Congress opposed to the ISS initiative Representative F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) long a vocal opponent of the ISS said simply ldquoI told you sordquo Before the official announcement of the delay Sensenbrenner had argued that NASA needed to consider alternative plans in case the Russian Space Agency proved unable to meet its obligations NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight Wilbur C Trafton countered criticism noting that the international contribution to the effort had surpassed US$6 billion and that NASA and its partners still expected to complete the overall project on time in 2002 Because the enormous undertaking involved ldquo15 countries dozens of companies and thousands of workersrdquo keeping production to preestablished deadlines had proven difficult236

12 April The Russian Space Agency celebrated the 36th anniversary of sending the first Russian Yuri Gagarin into space At the same time two cosmonauts and US astronaut Jerry M Linenger who were on board Mir reported that they had almost had to abandon the Russian space station twice over the past few months Russiarsquos successful history of space exploration contrasted with the current struggles of the Russian Space Agency to obtain adequate funding for Mir and other space initiatives When Russia launched its first piloted mission in 1961 the Cold War was driving an intense space competition between the Soviet Union and United States In the days leading up to the anniversary Russian President Boris N Yeltsin expressed his support for increased funding to the Russian Space Agency in the future237

16 April

234 Kathy Sawyer ldquoSigns of Ocean Found on a Jupiter Moonrdquo Washington Post 10 April 1997 Associated Press ldquoScientists Spot Water on Moon of Jupiterrdquo 10 April 1997 NASA ldquoNew Images Hint at Wet and Wild History for Europardquo news release 97-66 9 April 1997 235 NASA ldquoNASA Revises International Space Station Schedulerdquo news release 97-65 9 April 1997 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNASA Delays Start of Space Stationrdquo Washington Post 10 April 1997 236 William J Broad ldquoPanel Upset by New Delay in Russian Space Modulerdquo New York Times 10 April 1997 237 Reuters ldquoMir Crew Has Little To Celebrate on Space Dayrdquo 11 April 1997

67


NASA and the US Air Force Space Command announced an agreement to collaborate on several projects of mutual interest NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin explained that the agreement was part of NASArsquos ongoing mission to become a more efficient and cost-effective agency and that sharing information would lead to ldquogreater efficiencies in our respective missionsrdquo Goldin and US Air Force Space Commander General Howell M Estes III signed the pact establishing seven teams to explore areas of potential cooperation The areas of research included the feasibility of launching defense satellites from the Shuttle the use of the Shuttle for US Air Force technology payloads and development of a plan to meet the dual space needs of NASA and the US Air Force The two agencies also planned to examine ways they might share their common infrastructure and facilities238

In the first study to observe directly a change in the growth cycles of a large swath of the Northern Hemisphere scientists reported that spring was arriving a full week earlier in the Earthrsquos coldest regions than only a decade earlier The report contributed to growing concern over the prospect of global warming Using images obtained from NOAA satellites a team of five scientists from Boston University demonstrated that plants budding in early spring had used 10 percent more carbon than previously indicating the springrsquos earlier onset The scientific community reacted to the report with interest although most scientists cautioned that understanding climate change would be a long and difficult process239

23 April NASA scientist Addison Bain released a study concluding that the cause of the highly publicized explosion of the airship Hindenburg in 1937 was a special paint used to protect the aircraft from sunlight⎯not the ignition of inflammable hydrogen as historians had previously thought Bain and a team of researchers used reels of archived film models and computer simulations to reach the conclusion that the outside of the Hindenburg had caught fire first Because the Nazi government viewed the Hindenburg accident as an embarrassment Germany had restricted the investigation into the explosion which caused the deaths of the 35 passengers The cover-up had led researchers to propose the scientifically unconvincing theory of a hydrogen fire240

25 April NASA announced that it had rescheduled for July 1997 Space Shuttle Columbiarsquos Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL) mission cut short in early April because of a fuel cell problem The quick repair and relaunch plan used the same crew and set the same objectives as the initial Mission STS-83 Space Shuttle Program Manager Thomas W Holloway stated ldquowe are now in the position to do everything possible to complete the MSL mission with minimal impact to downstream flightsrdquo He also pointed out that the attempt to complete the MSL mission provided NASA with a ldquounique opportunity to demonstrate our ability to respond to challengesrdquo In its decision to insert Columbiarsquos Mission STS-83 into an already arranged Shuttle docket NASA

238 NASA ldquoNASA and Air Force Space Command Announce Cooperative Effortsrdquo news release 97-68 16 April 1997 239 Joby Warrick ldquoSpring Sprouting Earlier than a Decade Agordquo Washington Post 17 April 1997 240 Reuters ldquoPaint Led to Hindenburg AirshipTragedyrdquo 23 April 1997

68


acknowledged that it would have to push back slightly other flights already staffed and planned241

28 April At the fourth Compton Symposium on Gamma Ray Astronomy and Astrophysics scientists from Northwestern University and the US Naval Research Laboratory announced the unexpected discovery of two clouds of antimatter in the Milky Way Galaxy The researchers termed the material ldquoantimatter annihilation radiationrdquo The team of researchers used NASArsquos Compton Gamma Ray Observatory to discover the clouds which scientists could not fully explain ldquoThe origin of this new and unexpected source of antimatter is a mysteryrdquo William R Purcell of Northwestern University explained The scientists postulated that the clouds might have resulted from starbursts jets of material from a nearby black hole or from the merger of two neutron stars Attempting to explain the startling nature of the discovery Charles D Dermer of the US Naval Research Laboratory said ldquoIt is like finding a new room in the house we have lived in since childhood And the room is not empty⎯it has some engine or boiler making hot gas filled with annihilating antimatterrdquo242

29 April NASA astronaut American Jerry M Linenger and Russian Space Agency cosmonaut Ukrainian-born Vasili V Tsibliyev made the first joint US-Russian spacewalk in the history of space exploration Linenger more than three months into his four-month stay aboard the Mir space station joined Tsibliyev for nearly 5 hours outside the station The two men gathered cosmic dust samples and installed a radiation meter It was Linengerrsquos first spacewalk and Tsibliyevrsquos third The men both wore Russian spacesuits and spoke in Russian as they cooperated to complete the exercise Scientists planned to use the samples gathered from the spacewalk to continue tests to find the materials best suited for long-term space occupation a question of preeminent importance with the ISS nearing fruition Because of the orbiting position of the space station Russian Mission Control was unable to communicate with Linenger and Tsibliyev while they were outside Mir somewhat heightening tensions during the spacewalk243

MAY 1997

2 May NASA announced that John C Mather a senior astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences often considered the highest recognition possible for scientists and engineers Matherrsquos work at NASA had begun in 1974 specifically on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) spacecraft He had served as a project scientist when NASA launched the spacecraft in 1989 and in 1992 he had participated in the COBE

241 NASA ldquoMicrogravity Science Laboratory Mission Set for July Remaining 1997 Shuttle Manifest Adjusted Slightlyrdquo news release 97-81 25 April 1997 Seth Borenstein ldquoSpace Shuttle Columbia Gets Chance To Finish What It Startedrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 18 April 1997 242 NASA ldquoAntimatter Clouds and Fountain Discovered in the Milky Wayrdquo news release 97-83 28 April 1997 Malcolm W Browne ldquoEnormous Plume of Antimatter Alters View of the Milky Wayrdquo New York Times 29 April 1997 243 NASA ldquoUS Astronaut Ready for Milestone Spacewalkrdquo news release 97-80 25 April 1997 Associated Press ldquoAmerican Russian Take a Spacewalkrdquo 30 April 1997 Associated Press ldquoAstronauts Make First Joint USshyRussian Spacewalkrdquo 29 April 1997

69


project which effectively mapped primordial hot and cold spots in the cosmic microwave background radiation The map demonstrated that radiation from the Big Bang conformed to theoretical predictions providing new evidence for the long-standing Big Bang theory Mather received his PhD in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1974244

6 May NASA announced that it had granted Hitco Technologies exclusive rights to use a NASA-developed heat-resistant material to produce high-performance pistons NASA had developed the carbon-carbon composite in the 1960s for use as a heat shield for missile applications Researchers speculated that pistons composed of carbon-carbon a material with virtually no thermal expansion would allow engines to perform more efficiently holding their shape and rigidity in temperatures well above 2500degF (1370degC) According to G Burton Northam of Langley Research Center the carbon-carbon composite was ldquothe material of choice for the most demanding applicationsrdquo Allowing industry to use one of NASArsquos patented technologies continued the trend of government-industry collaboration that Administrator Daniel S Goldin had fostered245

8 May At Baltimorersquos Space Telescope Science Institute NASA scientists described the long-durationshyexposure pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) as the ldquobest picture we have yet of the early universerdquo announcing that approximately 12 billion years ago the universe had been completely barren of galaxies Richard S Ellis of Englandrsquos Institute of Astronomy emphasized the significance of sciencersquos new ability to use the HST to view ldquoa time before galaxy formationrdquo The HST had opened its lens for many hours of exposure focusing on a tiny wedge of the sky to capture its most probing picture ever known as the Hubble Deep Field Survey Focusing only on a small speck of the sky had enabled astronomers to look deeper into the universe than ever before Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute estimated that the HST had captured a view of the universe at only about 10 percent of its present age246

12 May Hubble scientists released their first reviews of the newly upgraded HST concluding enthusiastically that the refurbished space telescope offered exciting new possibilities The upgrades to the HST significantly improved the range and precision of the instrument Scientists reported peering approximately 50 million light-years away and zeroing in on previously undetectable black holes According to Edward J Weiler the head of NASArsquos Hubble team the added Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph installed in February 1997 reduced the length of time it took to confirm the presence of black holes in the universe Weiler called the HST a ldquocensus bureaurdquo for black-hole hunting allowing researchers to survey these objects as a population rather than as individual phenomena Another new instrument installed in February the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) enabled the HST to capture near-infrared wavelengths beginning to penetrate the ldquodusty veilrdquo that had prevented astronomers from studying the birth and death of stars NASA engineers also disclosed that an early focusing problem with one of the three cameras used by the NICMOS system seemed to be

244 NASA ldquoGoddard Scientist Selected for National Academy of Sciencesrdquo news release 97-88 2 May 1997 245 NASA ldquoHeat-Resistant Material Licensed for High-Performance Pistonsrdquo news release 97-91 6 May 1997 246 Associated Press ldquoHubble-Look Backrdquo 9 May 1997

70


correcting itself Although the flaw could limit the life of the system scientists were confident that NICMOS would still be able to gather and preserve all scientific data During early testing of the NICMOS system scientists had uncovered a region of the universe in which young stars eject material into a molecular cloud a process that researchers had long hypothesized but had been unable to observe247

13 May The New York Times reported a soon-to-be released study by Research Policy providing strong evidence that publicly funded scientific research often fueled industrial advancements in the United States According to the study prepared for the National Science Foundation 73 percent of all American industrial patents filed during the two-year study cited scientific advancements made possible by government funding The report had particular relevance because the Clinton administration and its congressional allies both Democratic and Republican had considered paring down the nationrsquos science outlays to balance the federal budget The Council of Scientific Society Presidents called the report ldquoa wake-up call for [f]ederal investment policiesrdquo The study joined an ongoing debate over exactly what contribution general scientific research made to the national economy The National Science Foundation and NASA were two of the agencies most cited in industrial patent requests248

For the first time NASA deployed its ER-2 aircraft a civilian version of the U-2 reconnaissance plane over the North Pole The vehiclersquos flight supported the Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in the Arctic Region in Summer (POLARIS) project The ER-2 flew at 70000 feet (21000 meters) an ideal height for atmospheric research Michael J Kurylo Manager of NASArsquos Upper Atmosphere Research Program emphasized the importance of aircraft such as the ER-2 to fill this specific research niche ldquoIt is really critical that we have access to consistent measurements at this key altitude which is an intermediate region between aerosol particle-driven processes measured by standard aircraft-based sensors and gas-phase processes monitored by orbiting satellitesrdquo Scientists said they were optimistic that the ER-2 would aid significantly the POLARIS endeavor to understand why the ozone layer over the North Pole had experienced reductions during each Arctic summer249

14 May NASA and Japanrsquos Institute of Space and Astronautical Science announced an agreement to combine their efforts to collect and study samples from the surface of the asteroid Nereus According to the plan a Japanese launch vehicle would carry a NASA-engineered rover onto the surface of the asteroid The planned rover with a visible-imaging camera and a near-infrared point spectrometer would weigh less than 3 pounds (13 kilograms) the smallest spacecraft ever sent into space A recovery capsule would return to Earth the samples the rover gathered from Nereus The project would have a lengthy timeframe with the return of the samples to Earth scheduled for 2006 NASA and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science were hopeful

247 NASA ldquoHubblersquos Upgrades Show Birth and Death of Stars Discover Massive Black Holerdquo news release 97-93 12 May 1997 Kathy Sawyer ldquoImproved Hubble Telescope Gets Rave Reviews at NASArdquo Washington Post 13 May 1997 Reuters ldquoHubble Captures Star Birthrdquo 13 May 1997 Associated Press ldquoUpgrade Hubble Telescope Dazzles Astronomersrdquo 12 May 1997 248 William J Broad ldquoStudy Finds Public Science Is Pillar of Industryrdquo New York Times 13 May 1997 249 NASA ldquoNASA Earth Science Research Aircraft Soars to New Heightsrdquo 13 May 1997

71


and excited at the prospect of joining forces ldquoThis ambitious mission is an opportunity for two spacefaring nations to combine their expertise and achieve something truly fantasticrdquo said Jurgen H Rahe NASArsquos Director of Solar System Exploration250

15 May Space Shuttle Atlantis took off at dawn from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida carrying a crew of seven Mission STS-84 was the fourth mission of 1997 and the sixth of nine planned missions to the Mir space station Atlantis carried astronaut C Michael Foale who was to replace Jerry M Linenger as the United Statesrsquo long-term resident aboard Mir Charles J Precourt served as Commander of Mission STS-84 and Eileen M Collins as Pilot for the Shuttle In addition the crew included US astronauts Carlos I Noriega and Edward T Lu and Mission Specialists Elena V Kondakova of the Russian Space Agency and Jean-Franccedilois Clervoy of the European Space Agency (ESA) Kondakova was the first Russian woman to fly aboard a NASA Space Shuttle With the recent problems aboard Mir many viewed the mission with special urgency Concerned about the numerous breakdowns and the fire aboard the Russian space station NASA even considered refusing to allow Foale to take his place aboard Mir The Shuttle carried to Mir a new oxygen generator which astronauts planned to unload almost immediately upon docking Atlantis took into space more than 7000 pounds (3200 kilograms) of cargo for Mir and its crew251

European astronomers unveiled a new more accurate map of the stars Scientists immediately praised the 17-volume celestial guide as a milestone in astronomy The ESArsquos Hipparcos project had produced the map over 17 years at a cost approaching US$1 billion Astronomers called the release of the Hipparcos data the beginning of a new and fruitful debate Hipparcos Project Scientist Michael Perryman said ldquoItrsquos a massive leap forward in our understanding But the science of Hipparcos doesnrsquot stop here For the scientific community it is just beginningrdquo In total the map indicated the positions and motions of more than 118000 stars252

19 May NASA unveiled a new facility called the Chemical Crib at Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) Officials hoped the new facility would reduce chemical waste by as much as 50 percent in three years Waste disposal had become an increasingly expensive problem for NASA ldquoFor every dollar spent to buy chemicalsrdquo NASArsquos Hazardous Materials Officer reported ldquowe spend three dollars to dispose of themrdquo The Chemical Crib would use a variety of techniques and technologies to compress waste such as breaking down photographic-waste chemicals into a sludge possessing as little as 5 percent of the mass of the original waste NASA planned to construct similar facilities at its other sites Staff of DFRCrsquos Safety Health and Environmental Office believed that the new facility would not only benefit the environment but also the Centerrsquos budget253

250 NASA ldquoNASA and Japan To Cooperate on Asteroid Sample Return Missionrdquo news release 97-95 14 May 1997 251 NASA ldquoAtlantis Ready To Fly Sixth ShuttlendashMir Missionrdquo news release J97-15 May 1997 Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttlerdquo 15 May 1997 252 Association Press ldquoMapping the Heavensrdquo 15 May 1997 253 NASA ldquoNew NASA Facility To Reduce Chemical Wastes May Provide Better Storage for Hazardous Materialsrdquo news release 97-102 19 May 1997

72


Astronaut Shannon W Lucid who had spent more than six months aboard Mir in 1996 received the Order of Friendship Medal from Russian President Boris N Yeltsin in a ceremony at the Kremlin The medal was the highest honor available to a non-Russian citizen254

20 May NASA researchers announced the discovery of wildly oscillating weather patterns on Mars In yet another use for the HST images scientists tracked much colder cloudier harsher weather conditions than they had expected R Todd Clancy of the Space Science Institute attributed Marsrsquos chaotic weather to a combination of factors including the planetrsquos thin atmosphere and elliptical orbit and the ice and dust clouds surrounding it When the planetrsquos orbit places it closest to the Sun large windstorms push dust into the atmosphere the dust absorbs sunlight causing the air to heat and Marsrsquos temperature to rise as high as 30degF (-1degC) HST images seemed to demonstrate further that when the planet is farthest from the Sun the dust storms remain at low altitudes and ice clouds surround the planet causing temperatures to plunge precipitously The findings were of particular importance to NASArsquos ongoing Mars Pathfinder Project with Pathfinderrsquos entrance into the Martian atmosphere planned for July 1997255

A Russian Zenit-2 rocket carrying a military satellite exploded moments after taking off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan According to Russian space officials the failure occurred 38 seconds after liftoff when an engine inexplicably shut off The Russian Space Agency suspended all further launches until an investigation could determine what had caused the explosion NASA believed that the destroyed satellite was a spy satellite intended to replace in orbit one of Russiarsquos many outdated satellites Russia had not insured the satellite valued at US$17 million256

21 May NASA announced that an American astronaut would be the first commander of the planned International Space Station settling a long-standing disagreement between NASA and the Russian Space Agency NASA selected veteran US astronaut William M Shepherd to lead the three-person crew which also included Russian cosmonauts Sergei K Krikalev and Yuri P Gidzenko Gidzenko said that he had no problem participating in a US-led mission ldquoIt doesnrsquot matter who will be commander who will be the flight engineer or pilot They all work together and they will try to do their bestrdquo NASA had selected Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Y Solovyev as a member of the crew but Solovyev had refused to take part in an American-led expedition opening the door to Gidzenkorsquos participation257

23 May

254 NASA ldquoAstronaut Shannon Lucid Receives Russian Order of Friendship Medalrdquo news release 97-103 19 May 1997 255 Warren E Leary ldquoHubble Space Telescope Finds Big Shifts in Weather on Marsrdquo New York Times 21 May 1997 Paul Hoversten ldquoKaleidoscopic Mars Shows Its True Colorsrdquo USA Today 21 May 1997 Associated Press ldquoHubble Finds Climate on Mars Harsher than Scientists Thoughtrdquo 21 May 1997 256 Richard C Paddock ldquoRussian Rocket Bearing Military Satellite Failsrdquo Los Angeles Times 21 May Associated Press ldquoRussian Booster Fails Explodes During Satellite Launchrdquo 20 May 1997 257 Todd Halverson ldquoAmerican Astronaut Will Lead First Space Station Crew in rsquo99rdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 22 May 1997

73


The US Capitolrsquos Statuary Hall installed a bronze statue of Apollo 13 astronaut John L Swigert Jr a native of Denver to represent the state of Colorado Each state chooses two statues for the hall to honor its most prominent citizens Swigert was perhaps most famous for uttering the words ldquoHouston wersquove had a problemrdquo Colorado had elected Swigert to the US House of Representatives in 1982 but he had died of cancer before his swearing-in Swigertrsquos statue took its place alongside that of fellow Coloradoan Florence Rena Sabin who led the crusade for womenrsquos admission to medical schools Astronaut Thomas Kenneth Mattingly II whom Swigert replaced only three days before the Apollo 13 launch attended the statue dedication along with NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin and other dignitaries258

24 May Astronaut Jerry M Linenger surprised onlookers at KSC when he bounded off Shuttle Atlantis only minutes after its landing Physicians credited Linengerrsquos excellent condition after spending more than four months aboard the Mir space station to his regimen of orbital exercise NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin was on hand to greet Linenger and the other astronauts returning home on Atlantis The Shuttlersquos safe landing returned Linenger to Earth after 132 days in space⎯the second longest stint by an American259

25 May Educators scientists and politicians gathered to celebrate a new nationwide observance⎯Space Day⎯meant to carry on President John F Kennedyrsquos call to the nation for space exploration On 25 May 1961 Kennedy had urged the United States to ldquocommit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earthrdquo sparking NASArsquos successful development of human space travel Advocates of Space Day argued that a day of celebrating previous achievements and calling for further advances would inspire future space explorers particularly children More than 1900 schools across the nation participated in Space Day activities260

JUNE 1997

2 June Lockheed Martin Corporation announced a joint satellite venture with the Moscow-based Intersputnik consortium Financial analysts estimated the pact could produce more than US$15 billion in annual revenue capitalizing on the increasing demand for satellite transmission services for telecommunication signaling The agreement which cemented ties between the US corporation and Russian space interests combined Lockheedrsquos capital resources with Intersputnikrsquos rights to prime satellite positions Lockheed assumed responsibility for constructing and launching the satellites whereas Intersputnik took the lead in marketing and sales The Intersputnik group represented Russia and 21 other nations The newly formed Lockheed Martin Intersputnik Ltd Company planned to focus on providing services to South

258 Paul Leavitt ldquoNew Statuerdquo USA Today 23 May 1997 Associated Press ldquoNewest Congressional Statue Apollo 13 Astronaut John Swigertrdquo 22 May 1997 259 Los Angeles Times ldquoReturning Astronaut Surprises Even Himself Shuttle Four Months on Mir Sap Less Strength than Traveler Jerry Linenger Expected He Credits the Exercising He Did in Orbitrdquo 25 May 1997 260 Martha Woodall for Knight-Ridder News Service ldquoSpace Day Today To Renew Interest in Outer Spacerdquo 22 May 1997

74


Asia and Eastern Europe⎯burgeoning markets with great potential for technological and economic growth261

3 June NASA announced the start of a month-long research endeavor to explore the levels of radiation present at high altitudes using a refitted ER-2 aircraft The project focused on altitudes between 52000 and 70000 feet (15900 and 21300 meters) where radiation typically occurs because of cosmic and solar rays The project had both scientific and public policy applications researchers intended to use the data gathered to assess the safety of public supersonic travel The campaign funded by NASArsquos High-Speed Research Program specifically investigated the plausibility of the High-Speed Civil Transport still in the conceptual stage of planning a commercial jetliner that would carry passengers at 24 times the speed of sound and at altitudes above 60000 feet (18300 meters) According to NASA Project Manager Donald L Maiden the speed of supersonic flight could mitigate any ill effects of high altitudes on passengers because ldquoEven though the exposure levels are higher at the higher cruise altitude the typical flying public will actually receive less radiation exposure than on todayrsquos subsonic transports because of the higher speed of the High-Speed Civil Transportrdquo NASA the US Department of Energyrsquos Environmental Measurements Laboratory the Boeing Company and the space agencies of Canada Germany and the United Kingdom collaborated on the project262

4 June The Los Angeles Times reported that the students of Glassell Park Elementary School had sold an astonishing 32000 candy bars to pay the way for all 115 of its fifth graders to attend the US Space Camp at NASArsquos Ames Research Center in Mountain View California Most of the schoolrsquos 951 students participated in selling candy to send their older classmates to the educational camp Principal Beatrice LaPisto said proudly of her students ldquoThis is a poor neighborhood Most children here for example are on the free lunch program But these are the brightest best most motivated students yoursquoll find anywhererdquo This year was the first in which the nonprofit US Space Camp Foundation had expanded its operations to the California site263

5 June NASA researchers announced that data from the Galileo probe indicated that Jupiter has distinct wet and dry regions similar to the Earth The finding refuted the previous supposition that Jupiter was mostly dry When it descended to Jupiter in December 1995 Galileo landed in an extremely dry and hot portion of the planet⎯an area one member of the team called the Sahara Desert of Jupiter Scientists assumed that the area was representative of the entire planet until they were able to analyze more long-range images taken by the probe The Galileo team concluded that Jupiter was remarkably similar to Earth with wet dry hot and cold regions as well as rain snow and thunderstorms Before the creation of Galileo scientists had been unable to observe much of the planet because of surface clouds of frozen ammonia According to Robert W Carlson of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASArsquos most fundamental conclusion was that

261 Jeff Cole ldquoLockheed To Unveil Intersputnik Satellite Venturerdquo Wall Street Journal 2 June 1997 Associated Press ldquoLockheed Planning Russia Venturerdquo 2 June 1997 Greg Schneider ldquoLockheed To Link Ex-Soviet Marketsrdquo Baltimore Sun (MD) 3 June 1997 262 NASA ldquoNASA Studies High Altitude Radiation with Upgrade ER-2rdquo news release 97-118 3 June 1997 263 Bob Pool ldquoSpace Racerdquo Los Angeles Times 4 June 1997

75


ldquoThere is weather on Jupiterrdquo However scientists pointed out that in contrast to Earth Jupiter faces weather developments that are far more extreme and long lasting Storms on the planet can last for years or even centuries264

An article in Nature confirmed the discovery of a small icy planet orbiting the Sun well beyond Pluto The discovery confirmed the theory that the solar system extends far beyond previously verifiable limits The planet known as 1996TL66 with a surface area roughly the size of Texas was the brightest solar-system object that astronomers had discovered beyond Neptune since 1978 Astronomers using a University of Hawaii telescope discovered the planet as its orbit passed closest to the Earth an occurrence that happens every 800 years In the past some researchers had hypothesized but had been unable to prove that planets might exist in the area where astronomers discovered 1996TL66265

9 June NASArsquos AeroVironment Pathfinder a remote-controlled ultra-lightweight aircraft set a new world record for highest altitude for a solar-powered aircraft AeroVironment Pathfinder reached an altitude of 67350 feet (20500 meters) shattering the previous record of 50500 feet (15400 meters) The experiment took place at the US Navyrsquos Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai Hawaii Engineers had designed Pathfinder to fly at extremely high altitudes to supply researchers with atmospheric and environmental data that other planes could not gather In traveling to such heights Pathfinder experienced temperatures as low as -100degF (-73degC) After climbing for about 6 hours the aircraft ascended into record-breaking territory flying for more than 90 minutes at an altitude above 60000 feet (18300 meters) A partnership formed under the Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology Alliance involving NASA aerospace companies and members of the scientific community was responsible for developing AeroVironment Pathfinder266

10 June Astrophysicists William P Blair Robert A Fesen and Eric M Schlegel presented to the American Astronomical Society the first images ever recorded of two supernovas colliding The team used the Hubble Space Telescope to capture the images of the supernovas more than 17 million light-years from Earth Astronomers had suspected that collisions occurred between exploding stars but had been unable to capture an image of the process because it was so short-lived Although the scientific community would continue to debate the implications of the image Blair offered this assessment of its significance ldquoIt indicates that not only is there a lot of star formation going on but a lot of those stars are massive They are evolving quickly and they are exploding as supernovasrdquo267

18 June

264 NASA ldquoGalileo Finds Wet Spots Dry Spots and New View of Jupiterrsquos Light Showrdquo news release 97-123 5 June 1997 KC Cole ldquoScientists Detect Rain on Jupiterrdquo Los Angeles Times 6 June 1997 Associated Press ldquoJupiter Wet and Dryrdquo 6 June 1997 265 Jane Luu et al ldquoA New Dynamic Class of Object in the Outer Solar Systemrdquo Nature 387 no 6633 (5 July 1997) 573minus575 Associated Press ldquoAstronomers Find Icy Miniplanet Beyond Plutordquo 5 June 1997 266 Michael A Dornheim ldquoPathfinder Surpasses Propeller Altitude Recordrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 146 no 25 (16 June 1997) 53 NASA ldquoPathfinder Sets New World Recordrdquo news release 97-132 12 June 1997 267 NASA ldquoHubble Is First To Spot Colliding Supernovasrdquo news release 97-129 10 June 1997

76


The US General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report detailing the cost overruns for the development of the International Space Station (ISS) US Senator Dale Bumpers (D-AK) a longtime opponent of the expensive ISS requested the report Upon seeing it Senator Bumpers commented ldquowe donrsquot need to search outer space for black holes We have one right here on Earth Itrsquos called the International Space Stationrdquo GAOrsquos report found that Boeing Company hired by NASA to build the ISS had already incurred nearly US$300 million in cost overruns The report also found that the cost-effectiveness of the project had deteriorated severely from the time of last accounting In 1995 Boeing had been US$27 million under budget as opposed to the severe overages of 1997 GAO Associate Director Thomas J Schulz recommended in the report that Congress should rethink its commitment to the program if the overruns continued to grow The estimate of the cost just to get the program back on schedule was US$129 million However an ongoing debate on a disaster relief bill for the Midwest prevented the scheduled congressional hearing on the report268

NASA announced that Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Company had won the contract to develop and deliver solar-imaging instruments for US weather satellites The US$54 million contract provided funding for the creation of a model instrument and two flight instruments Scientists believed that the solar x-ray images captured by the instrument would improve the ability of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Air Force to forecast special weather events The proposed imager also had applications for civilian companies dependent upon predicting weather patterns269

Jurgen H Rahe NASArsquos Science Program Director for Exploration of the Solar System died when a tree collapsed on the car he was driving during a severe storm in Maryland Rahe 57 years old had enjoyed a distinguished career in the field of astronomy and at NASA At the time of his death he was responsible for overseeing visionary NASA programs such as the Galileo Mission to Jupiter and the much-anticipated July 1997 landing of Mars Pathfinder Rahe had guided NASArsquos efforts to make more frequent and cost-effective exploratory missions of the solar system According to one colleague Rahe had presided over the planetary exploration programrsquos ldquounparalleled period of major discoveriesrdquo Before his tenure at NASA Rahe held tenured positions at California Institute of Technology and Germanyrsquos University of ErlangenshyNuremberg270

24 June As the 50th anniversary of the alleged alien sighting neared the U S Air Force released a 231shypage report entitled The Roswell Report Case Closed The report explained that the US Air Force had recovered test dummies from the Roswell New Mexico crash site in 1947 rather than the bodies of aliens The US Air Force had issued a report on the Roswell matter in 1994 in which researchers argued that the presumed spacecraft that had crashed in 1947 was actually an Air Force balloon used in a top-secret program called Project Mogul When officials discovered

268 U S General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Station Cost Control Problems Continue To Worsenrdquo (report no TshyNSIAD-97-177 Washington DC 18 June 1997) Seth Borenstein and Tamara Lytle ldquoSpace Lab Deep in Red Report Saysrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 11 June 1997 Associated Press ldquoSpace Stationrdquo 11 June 1997 269 NASA ldquoLockheed Martin Selected To Build Solar X-ray Imagingrdquo news release C97-g 18 June 1997 Grant Jerding ldquoNASA Brings Its X-ray Vision to the Universerdquo USA Today 17 June 1997 270 Associated Press ldquoObituary Jurgen Rahe 57 NASA Officialrdquo 20 June 1997 NASA ldquoNASA Mourns Dr Jurgen H Rahe Solar System Exploration Science Program Directorrdquo news release 97-137 19 June 1997

77


evidence that the tests had used parachute dummies however the US Air Force compiled an additional report with the new information Military officials hoped that the Air Forcersquos explanation for the supposed UFO reported in 1994 as well as for the supposed bodies of aliens discovered in the crash would temper the controversy surrounding the issue US Air Force Colonel John Haynes presiding over the Pentagon news conference at the release of the report showed reporters footage of a NASA test craft that indeed resembled a flying saucer Colonel Haynes explained that during testing in the 1950s Air Force balloons had transported dummies to altitudes of 98000 feet (29900 meters) releasing them to fall to the ground Since the testing was secret the sight of falling dummies ldquoeasily could have been mistaken for something they were notrdquo271

In the most serious of a string of problems for the Russian Mir space station the 7-ton (6400shykilogram or 64-tonne) robotic cargo spacecraft Progress accelerated out of control while docking and crashed into Mir damaging the Spektr module tearing a solar-power array and crumpling an exposed radiator When the craft crashed into Mir US astronaut British-born C Michael Foale was inside the Spektr module which he had been using as his sleeping and research quarters Foale immediately abandoned the damaged module and slammed shut a hatch sealing off the leaking Spektr Spektr depressurized completely and later the entire space station suffered a slight depressurization When the collision occurred Mir cosmonaut Vasili V Tsibliyev was controlling the Progress manually attempting to re-dock the craft to test the updated manual-control system The Progress had already docked with Mir a few days earlier when the crew had unloaded cargo and filled the craftrsquos hold with trash In addition to damaging Mir the collision temporarily jarred the station off its normal flying orbit Although the crew quickly remedied this problem the three-man team had to work inside a darkened partially powered station Russian and American space officials estimated that Mir had lost half of its operating power from the collision The collision heightened tensions between Russian and American space officials as questions mounted about the safety of the crew aboard the failing space station US House Committee on Science and Technology Chairperson F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) met with NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin urging NASA not to send American astronauts to Mir until the stationrsquos safety standards had improved significantly Yuri N Koptev Director General of the Russian Space Agency responded angrily to Sensenbrennerrsquos suggestion272

26 June Vladimir Lobachyov head of Russian Mission Control explained to reporters that the collision of the robotic cargo craft Progress with the Mir space station had probably punctured one of the space stationrsquos solar batteries damaging Mirrsquos power supply The crew of the damaged Mir

271 U S Air Force Headquarters The Roswell Report Case Closed (Washington DC 1997) Associated Press ldquoAir Force Says Dummies Used in Parachute Tests Were Mistaken for Aliensrdquo 24 June 1997 Richard Leiby ldquoAlien Autopsyrdquo Washington Post 25 June 1997 272 Michael R Gordon ldquoRussian Space Station Damaged in Collision with a Cargo Vesselrdquo New York Times 26 June 1997 Kathy Sawyer ldquoDocking Crash Cripples Mir Space Stationrdquo Washington Post 26 June 1997 Associated Press ldquoRussians Slow To Announce Mir Crash but More Forthcoming than in Pastrdquo 25 David Hoffman ldquoUS Questions on Mirrsquos Safety Anger Russiardquo Washington Post 27 June 1997 Paul Hoversten ldquoFuture of US-Russian Mission Shakyrdquo USA Today 26 June 1997

78


turned the space station to face directly toward the Sun so that Mir would get the jolt of energy necessary to boost its solar-power supply273

27 June NASArsquos Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft engaged in a high-speed flyby of asteroid 253 Mathilde capturing startlingly clear images of the huge space rock Scientists had discovered Mathilde more than 100 years ago but until the successful NEAR mission they had been unable to take useful pictures of the 33-mile-around (53-kilometer-around) asteroid NEAR Mission Director Robert W Farquhar of the Applied Physics Laboratory praised the mission as ldquoone of the most successful flybys of all timerdquo In the color images the asteroid resembled a massive gray potato with deep gashes scarring its surface Some of the craters on the asteroid were large enough to ldquoswallow the District of Columbiardquo according to one scientist who viewed the images as they were taken The pictures also revealed that the rock was smaller than scientists had previously estimated and that it reflected only 3 percent of the Sunrsquos light making it twice as dark as a piece of charcoal Scientists hoped that the new data might reveal why the asteroid rotates at the extremely slow rate of one rotation every 174 days NEARrsquos multispectral imager took the pictures using very little of the spacecraftrsquos solar-based power a significant accomplishment since NEAR was approximately 186 million miles (300 million kilometers) from the Sun when it captured the images274

JULY 1997

1 July Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida Commander James D Halsell Jr called Mission STS-94 a ldquoonce-in-a-career opportunityrdquo for the seven-person crew the same crew that had embarked upon Mission STS-83 in April 1997 NASA had cut short Mission STS-83 because of a fuel cell problem The reflight gave NASA officials and the Shuttle crew a chance to undertake the experiments planned for the original mission including testing hardware and procedures planned for the International Space Station NASA was able to launch Columbia just 84 days after bringing the Shuttle home at a cost of about 20 percent of the amount needed to set off a new Shuttle mission The crew planned to carry out the original 33 experiments over the course of the 16-day science mission Mission STS-94 NASA clarified involved the same vehicle crew Microgravity Science Laboratory payload and experiment schedule as the recalled mission The mission was the first in the 36-year history of unpiloted spaceflight in which the same crew flew together in space more than once275

2 July

273 Reuters ldquoMir Crew Turns to Sun To Help Damaged Space Stationrdquo 26 June 1997 274 NASA ldquoAsteroid Mathilde Reveals Her Dark Pastrdquo news release 97-147 30 June 1997 Associated Press ldquoSpacecraft Sends Astonishing Images of Asteroidrdquo 27 June 1997 Associated Press ldquoIn Close Flyby Spacecraft Sends Back Photos of Battered Asteroidrdquo 1 July 1997 275 NASA ldquoColumbia and Crew Ready for Reflight of Microgravity Sciences Laboratory-1 Payload on Mission STS-94rdquo news release J97-21 June 1997 William Harwood ldquoShuttle Begins Second Attempt at Missionrdquo Washington Post 2 July 1997 Warren Leary ldquoShuttle Roars Aloft To Complete Mission Interrupted in Aprilrdquo New York Times 2 July 1997 Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttle Blasts Off on Repeat Science Missionrdquo 1 July 1997

79


NASA announced its plan to compensate for the failure of Japanrsquos Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) with NASArsquos weather instruments aboard admitting that the loss of the spacecraft was ldquoa real blow to NASArsquos science programrdquo Japanrsquos National Space Development Agency (NASDA) had declared the ADEOS lost on 30 June 1997 NASA scientists had been using the satellite to gather data about weather patterns and climate change NASA resolutely pledged to continue working with NASDA despite the setback highlighting plans to send up a second scatterometer aboard ADEOS II in 1999 Michael B Mann Deputy Associate Administrator of the Mission to Planet Earth Strategic Enterprise qualified the failure saying ldquoThe collaboration between NASDA and NASA on this mission has been outstanding space operations is a risky business those of us involved in the business strive to limit the risk but sometimes mishaps do occurrdquo276

4 July NASA successfully landed the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft on Mars exactly seven months after its launch from Earth Project managers at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) called the landing ldquonear perfectrdquo celebrating the beginning of the ldquosecond era in the exploration of Marsrdquo The Mars Pathfinder Mission was the first to attempt a planetary landing on initial orbit and Pathfinderrsquos safe landing followed a journey in which the spacecraft traveled at speeds of up to 16600 miles (26800 kilometers) per hour Although NASA made its first successful flyby of Mars in 1965 in recent years it had taken a new approach to exploring the Red Planet NASA achieved the development and deployment of Mars Pathfinder for US$266 million a bargain compared to the US$1 billion cost of the failed Mars Observer Because of its tightening budget NASA had adopted a course of planning several simple but targeted excursions using low-cost spacecraft rather than mounting a few complex and expensive missions Pathfinder landed almost exactly at the point aimed for and immediately transmitted signals back to Earth announcing its safe landing Officials at JPL noticed a slight complication when early images revealed that some of the airbags used to cushion the craftrsquos landing had bunched up around the door that Sojourner⎯the rover set to explore the planet⎯would use to exit Pathfinder NASArsquos engineers clarified however that the temporary problem would not compromise the roverrsquos planned exploration277

5 July Russia launched Progress M35 a supply spacecraft headed for Mir filled with repair equipment needed to fix problems caused by the crash of another Progress cargo craft and to restore full power to the space station According to Russian space officials repairs would entail a lengthy spacewalk The repair tasks appeared so daunting that the Russian Space Agency engineers pushed back the date of the work to allow the Mir cosmonauts more time to train C Michael Foale the American astronaut aboard Mir was responsible for operating the Soyuz spacecraft

276 NASA ldquoNASArsquos Earth Science Program Adjusts to Loss of Data from Japanese ADEOS Satelliterdquo news release 97-149 2 July 1997 277 John Noble Wilford ldquoLanding Called Near Perfect by NASArdquo New York Times 5 July 1997 John Noble Wilford ldquoSpacecraft Lands Today on the Planet of Dreamsrdquo New York Times 4 July 1997 Tony Knight ldquoPathfinder Zeroes in on Red Planetrdquo Los Angeles Daily News 4 July 1997 NASA Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 1996 Activities (Washington DC 1997) p 3

80


docked at the station so that in the event of a problem the crew would be able to make a safe return to Earth278

6 July Sojourner the roving vehicle carried to Mars aboard Pathfinder began prospecting the surface of the Red Planet approximately two days after Pathfinderrsquos safe landing NASA engineers and enthralled scientists described the scene of the six-wheeled microwave-sized Sojourner slowly descending the ramp of Pathfinder as similar to Neil A Armstrongrsquos ldquogiant leaprdquo in 1969 Richard A Cook managing the mission from JPL set off a raucous celebration of NASA engineers when he announced ldquoThe rover is on the surface of Mars Wersquove got some great images back and all the scientists are in heavenrdquo Weather reports gathered by the Pathfinder reported that Sojourner was working in temperatures as high as 8deg below 0degF (-22degC) as well as in wind and dust storms Sojourner named for black abolitionist Sojourner Truth headed for a dark rock near Pathfinder as its first object of close study NASA scientists who had named the rock Barnacle Bill because of its craggy appearance used similarly whimsical terms to keep track of the various geological objects studied by Sojourner Sojournerrsquos success after some minor complication upon landing encouraged mission scientists and drew wide acclaim from the media Scientists began to speculate almost immediately about whether the mission could possibly confirm or deny the existence of life on the planet279

7 July NASArsquos AeroVironment Pathfinder⎯distinct from Mars Pathfinder⎯broke the record for highest-flying propeller-powered aircraft in a flight from the US Navyrsquos Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai Hawaii After climbing for nearly 7 hours AeroVironment Pathfinder reached its record altitude maintaining its height for about 13 minutes Even at its peak distance from Earth a span of more than 67 nautical miles (124 kilometers) AeroVironment Pathfinder transmitted data without any problems The successful test was part of the Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology Program at NASArsquos Dryden Flight Research Center280

9 July NASA reported receiving 265 million hits on its Web site during the four days following Mars Pathfinderrsquos landing In response to what some observers called the ldquobiggest event in computer network historyrdquo NASA buttressed its own computers with donated equipment from corporate sponsors so that the government site could handle the high volume of viewers The Internet statistics validated the widespread popularity of the mission to Mars The CNN network dedicated nearly half of its programming to the Pathfinder story on the day of the Mars landing doubling its network ratings Entrepreneurs sold a variety of Mars- and Pathfinder-themed products and visitors jammed the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC USA

278 Michael R Gordan ldquoRussia Launches Supply Craft To Repair the Damaged Mir Space Stationrdquo New York Times 6 July 1997 279 John Noble Wilford ldquoOn the Surface of Mars Sojourner Rolls to Workrdquo New York Times 7 July 1997 Knight-Ridder News Service ldquoData from Mars Indicate It Could Have Supported Liferdquo 7 July 1997 Peter N Spotts ldquoTiny Land Rover Begins Relaying Detailed Data About Surface of Red Planetrdquo Christian Science Monitor 7 July 1997 280 Michael A Dornheim ldquoPathfinder Aircraft Hits 71500 Ftrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 147 no 3 (21 July 1997) 40 NASA ldquoSolar-Powered Pathfinder Sets New Record Prepares To Monitor Deforestation of Hawaiian Islandrdquo news release 97-153 14 July 1997

81


Today summed up the success of the Mars Pathfinder Mission ldquoNASArsquos successful landing on the Red Planet has set off a Marsfest on the blue onerdquo281

NASA announced the retirement of veteran astronaut Jeffrey A Hoffman who had flown on five Shuttle missions Hoffman planned to continue his NASA service becoming NASArsquos European representative in Paris Hoffman was one of the four astronauts to take part in the spacewalking mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 1993 In total Hoffman had spent more than 1200 hours in space and traveled more than 215 million miles (35 million kilometers)282

The crew aboard Space Shuttle Columbia lit more than 200 small fires testing the flammability of dozens of gases and materials The experiments took place under the direction of Paul D Ronney a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Southern California Ronney explained that the experiments had as much application for Earth as for space According to Ronney the weaker the flame in spacersquos weightless environment the cleaner its fuel would burn on Earth The astronauts found that without the effect of gravity the flames often formed the shape of a ball and heat did not rise The experiments created some attention for Mission STSshy94 largely overshadowed by the success of the Pathfinder mission to Mars283

14 July Routine medical testing of the crew aboard Mir revealed that the Russian commander of the space station Vasili V Tsibliyev had an irregular heartbeat and according to Russian Mission Control a problem with his ldquocardiovascular systemrdquo The tests indicating that Tsibliyev was overtired and suffering from stress did not surprise space officials considering his traumatic experience of late June when a cargo craft had crashed into Mir Tsibliyev reported that he had felt ldquoirregularitiesrdquo while he was exercising and when he was trying to sleep The news of crew health problems complicated further the arduous repair plan A day after learning of Tsibliyevrsquos test results Russian officials proposed that US astronaut C Michael Foale take Tsibliyevrsquos place in the repair spacewalk NASA subsequently deliberated over the request before granting Foale permission to participate Ultimately however Russian Mission Control decided not to allow Mirrsquos exhausted crew to perform the tasks Instead Mission Control planned for the replacement crew scheduled to arrive in August 1997 to make the repairs The response to the latest of Mirrsquos challenges demonstrated an increasingly dependent and trusting partnership between the Russian and American space agencies During the Soviet-led race for space few could have imagined Russian officials asking for the aid of an American crew member in a time of crisis284

281 NASA ldquoPathfinder Gets Hit Hard on the Internetrdquo news release I97-8 9 July 1997 Martha T Moore ldquoMars Mania Invades Earthrdquo USA Today 9 July 1997 Associated Press ldquolsquoMars Liversquo Draws Millions to Web Siterdquo 9 July 1997 United Press International ldquoMars Tops Internet Hit Listrdquo 8 July 1997 282 NASA ldquoJeff Hoffman Retires from Astronaut Corpsrdquo new release 97-151 9 July 1997 283 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Tests of Tiny Fires Spur Delightrdquo 9 July 1997 Wayne Tompkins ldquoColumbia Crew Ready for Hot Time in Spacerdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 4 July 1997 284 Paul Hoversten ldquoLatest Mir Trouble Commanderrsquos Heartrdquo USA Today 15 July 1997 Michael Gordon ldquoRussians Suggest American Take On Mir Repair Taskrdquo New York Times 16 July 1997 Associated Press ldquoCommander of Russian Space Station Shows Heart Irregularitiesrdquo 14 July 1997 Reuters ldquoTests on Mir Commander Show Cardiovascular Problemrdquo 14 July 1997 Associated Press ldquoBacks to the Wall Russians Ask for Help from American Astronautrdquo 15 July 1997 Reuters ldquoNASA Approves Mir Spacewalk Training for Foalerdquo 17 July 1997 New York Times ldquoA Rescue Assignment for NASArdquo editorial 17 July 1997 Associated Press ldquoMir Crew Gets Disappointing News Next Crew To Do Key Repairsrdquo 19 July 1997

82


15 July Vice President Albert A Gore Jr US Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney E Slater and NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin joined in leading an aviation safety event at Dulles International Airport in Virginia NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had invited media representatives and interested spectators to the event to observe demonstrations of the new technologies that the agencies had developed to improve the safety of flying aboard commercial private and government aircraft NASA made available one of its Boeing B-757 research aircraft providing hands-on demonstrations of the new techniques and technologies produced by NASArsquos and the FAArsquos Task Force on Aviation Safety285

16 July As Mars Pathfinder and its surveyor Sojourner triumphantly explored the surface of Mars NASA named as Software of the Year the Dynamics Algorithms for Real-Time Simulation (DARTS) software⎯a program used on the Pathfinder mission Abhinandan Jain Guillermo Rodriguez and Guy K Man of JPL had created the software to provide real-time simulations to test other software and hardware DARTS allowed NASA mission managers to test procedures in a cost-effective manner286

17 July Space Shuttle Columbia landed safely at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida just after sunrise returning its seven-person crew to Earth The landing marked the conclusion of a successful 16shyday mission during which the astronauts completed 33 laboratory experiments The low-cost mission was the first reflight in NASArsquos history concluding the research agenda planned for the April 1997 mission that NASA had terminated as a safety precaution Although the press coverage of events on Mars and Mir had overshadowed the Columbia crewrsquos efforts NASA Mission Manager Teresa B Vanhooser stated confidently that scientific journals would give the mission due respect287

25 July Two Yemeni men filed a lawsuit against NASA claiming that NASA had committed trespassing violations when it landed Pathfinder on Mars The men claimed that their ancient ancestors had deeded the planet to them as an inheritance requesting that Yemenrsquos prosecutor-general bring US Ambassador David G Newton to court to stop the violation Although no legal restitution was expected the lawsuit highlighted the excitement surrounding NASArsquos Mars mission and the widespread interest in the Red Planetrsquos exploration288

30 July Astronomers using the HST and the W M Keck Observatory in Hawaii announced the discovery of the most distant object ever observed from Earth The discovery team comprised

285 NASA ldquoVice President To Showcase Aviation Safety Technologies Developed by NASA and FAArdquo news release N97-47 14 July 1997 286 NASA ldquoSoftware Used on Mars Pathfinder Wins NASArsquos Software of the Year Awardrdquo news release 97-154 16 July 1997 287 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Returns Full of Research Informationrdquo 17 July 1997 288 Reuters ldquoGet Off Our Planet Yemeni Men Tell USrdquo 25 July 1997

83


researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the University of California at Santa Cruz The scientistsrsquo calculations indicated that the distant light they had discovered was an infant galaxy approximately 13 billion light-years from Earth Formally named Red Arc in CL1358-62 the discovery gave astronomers a glimpse into the universe as it had existed when only 7 percent of its present age Lead researcher Garth D Illingworth described the images as ldquoa pathfinder for deciphering what is happening in young galaxiesrdquo289

AUGUST 1997

1 August Frank L Culbertson Jr NASArsquos Manager for the Space ShuttlendashMir research program announced that in the future NASA would likely require astronauts to have training in spacewalking The announcement coincided with reports in the New York Times and other US newspapers that David A Wolf had replaced astronaut Wendy B Lawrence as the next NASA representative aboard Mir NASA had replaced Lawrence because of her small stature At 5 feet 3 inches (16 meters) tall she was too small to fit into the bulky Russian Orlan spacesuits worn on Mir In addition she had received no training in spacewalking Previously NASA had planned for Wolf to replace Lawrence aboard Mir following her research stint NASA and the Russian Space Agency addressed the sensitive issue of replacing Lawrence because of her size explaining the need for flexibility aboard Mir during significant repairs to the station Lawrence reacted professionally despite the disappointment of her replacement less than two months before her planned once-in-a-career mission290

NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin addressed the Experimental Aircraft Association fly-in convention outlining NASArsquos vision to ldquorevitalize general aviationrdquo Goldin boldly predicted that the US aviation industry would be able to deliver 10000 aircraft annually within 10 years and 20000 annually within 20 years The fly-in convention featuring flyovers by NASArsquos SRshy71 had the theme ldquoBoomers Turn 50rdquo celebrating both the 50th anniversary of the US Air Force and that of the first breaking of the sound barrier The Association announced the winner of the National General Aviation Design Competition sponsored by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) a competition encouraging university engineering students to focus on the aviation industry The conference also featured the unveiling of the new FAA flight-training curricula as well as a national aviation safety initiative291

2 August The Rasmussen Research Group reported that seven out of 10 Americans had seen at least one image of Mars obtained through the Mars Pathfinder Mission denoting a remarkable level of public awareness of NASArsquos mission to the Red Planet The researchers also reported that nearly half of all Americans believed that an American would land on Mars within 10 years Despite the

289 Malcolm W Browne ldquoAstronomers Discover Most Distant Objectrdquo New York Times 31 July 1997 290 Warren E Leary ldquoFuture Astronauts Must Walk Before They Flyrdquo New York Times 1 August 1997 Todd Halverson ldquoMir Prerequisite Spacewalkingrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 1 August 1997 United Press International ldquoUS Russia Cite Logic of Replacing Female Astronautrdquo 1 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoNASA Decision To Replace Astronaut Difficult but Necessaryrdquo 31 July 1997 291 NASA ldquoNASA To Showcase New Activities at Upcoming Aircraft Fly-In Conventionrdquo news release N97-51 25 July 1997

84


widespread interest and optimism regarding the project only 41 percent of those polled saw merit in the mission292

5 August The Russian Soyuz spacecraft lifted off from Kazakhstan carrying cosmonauts Anatoly Y Solovyev and Pavel V Vinogradov on a mission to repair the disabled Mir space station Russian space officials tasked the two men with restoring power to Mir after the 25 June collision with a cargo craft cut by half the orbiting research centerrsquos energy Regarding the importance of the mission some observers of Russian space activity went so far as to say that the countryrsquos piloted space program depended on Solovyev and Vinogradovrsquos success293

During the terminal countdown of a demonstration test of the Titan IV-B rocket designed for the Cassini mission to Saturn engineers noticed liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen leaking from the Centaur stage of the rocket NASA had scheduled Cassinirsquos launch for early October 1997 NASA officials delayed the launch until they could complete further tests offering no immediate estimate of how long that might take Interested scientists and engineers however predicted that the problem could postpone the mission by months or even years Under the missionrsquos original timetable NASA had expected Cassini to launch in October 1997 reaching Saturn in July 2004 Because of the length of the journey from Earth to Saturn the scientific community expected that NASA would find it difficult to reschedule the flight Moreover experts warned that the alignment of planets providing an ideal launch date such as that in October 1997 would not occur again for 12 to 14 years At US$32 billion Cassini was one of the last of NASArsquos high-stake multibillion-dollar missions drawing considerable attention during the climate of steady cost reductions that characterized the 1990s294

7 August A relief crew of two Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Y Solovyev and Pavel V Vinogradov arrived at Mir to begin repair work on the damaged space station On 25 June 1997 Mir had suffered its worst accident when a robotic supply craft attempting to dock pierced the exterior of one of its research modules The arriving crew carrying tools and equipment also had difficulty docking As Soyuz approached Mir its autonomic docking system failed forcing Solovyev to override the system and pull Soyuz back Solovyev then successfully docked the relief vehicle using manual controls The crew planned to repair Mirrsquos failing oxygen-generating system before reconnecting the damaged research module to the rest of the station Both NASA and the Russian Space Agency stressed that Mir had sufficient oxygen reserves in the event that the oxygen generator failed altogether After repairing the oxygen system and the research module the new crew planned to make as many as six spacewalks to repair the external damage caused by the June collision Cosmonaut Solovyev brought significant experience to the mission he had resided on Mir during four earlier missions spending a total of 456 days in space NASA

292 Mark Carreau ldquoMars Trip a Monster Summer Hitrdquo Houston Chronicle 2 August 1997 293 Associated Press ldquo2 Russians Blast Off on Mir Repair Missionrdquo 6 August 1997 294 NASA ldquoCountdown Test Reveals Fuel Leaks on Cassini Mission Centaur Upper Stagerdquo 7 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoRocket Leak Could Postpone Landing on Saturn by Yearsrdquo 8 August 1997

85


planned for British-born US astronaut C Michael Foale to remain on Mir although the Russian Space Agency was replacing its crew aboard the space station295

Shuttle Discovery Mission STS-85 launched carrying Commander Curtis L Brown Jr Pilot Kent V Rominger and astronauts N Jan Davis Robert L Curbeam Jr Stephen K Robinson and Canadian Bjarni V Tryggvason who planned to conduct studies on Earthrsquos ozone layer and to test a newly engineered robotic arm The test on the small robotic arm a prototype of the one planned for the International Space Station (ISS) continued NASArsquos trend of using Shuttle missions to prepare for the much-anticipated space station Discovery also carried a 7000-pound (3200-kilogram) German satellite which would orbit freely for most of the10-day mission gathering data on the declining ozone layer Brown emphasized the international flavor of the crew and cargo saying ldquoone word for our mission would be diversityrdquo With this mission its 23rd

flight Discovery tied with Columbia for the most missions by a single vehicle296

8 August After exceeding even the most optimistic predictions made during its primary mission the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft concluded its initial research maneuvers and began extended operations The initial mission had returned to Earth 12 gigabits of data and more than 9000 images of the Martian landscape Project Manager of the Mars Pathfinder Mission Brian Muirhead said that the mission had not only had gathered an impressive amount of data but also validated NASArsquos new approach to exploring space ldquoThis mission demonstrated a reliable and low-cost system for placing science payloads on the surface of Marsrdquo he stated ldquoWersquove validated NASArsquos commitment to low-cost planetary explorationrdquo After completing the planned 30-day mission and traveling 171 feet (52 meters) across Marsrsquos landscape the rover Sojourner remained in excellent condition Operators gave Sojourner a two-day rest period to recharge its battery before it began an extended exploration of the planet297

9 August As the two cosmonauts worked to repair the failing Mir space station President Boris N Yeltsin allowed the Russian government to borrow US$100 million from foreign banks giving the Russian Space Agency an infusion of capital Yeltsin announced the decision after touring the construction facilities where Russia planned to build its contributions to the ISS The Russian Space Agencyrsquos cash-flow problems had resulted in construction delays and failure to meet deadlines postponing the completion of the entire ISS298

After widespread speculation concerning the possibility of an indefinite delay of the Cassini Mission to Saturn NASA announced that it would be able to repair a fuel leak in the spacecraft

295 Baltimore Sun (MD) ldquoRelief Team Reaches Crippled Mir Space Stationrdquo 8 August 1997 Reuters ldquoTwo Cosmonauts Blast Off on Mission To Repair Mirrdquo 6 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoRussians Rocket To Repair Stationrdquo 6 August 1997 Reuters ldquoNew Crew Faces Hydra of Woes on Mir Space Stationrdquo 5 August 1997 296 NASA ldquoAugust 7 Selected for STS-85 Space Shuttle Mission Launchrdquo news release 97-159 24 July 1997 Marcia Dunn ldquoShuttle Blasts Off on Ozone Studyrdquo USA Today 8 August 1997 Mark Carreau ldquoDiscovery Mission Plans Tests with International Flairrdquo Houston Chronicle 4 August 1997 297 NASA ldquoMars Pathfinder Results Generating New Picture of Mars as Mission Moves into Extended Operationrdquo news release 97-174 8 August 1997 Los Angeles Times ldquoMars Mission lsquo100 Percent Successrsquo NASA Saysrdquo Los Angeles Times 9 August 1997 298 Associated Press ldquoGovernment Will Borrow $100 Million for Space Agencyrdquo 9 August 1997

86


in time to meet an October 1997 launch date NASA had enlisted US Air Force engineers to make the repairs The spacecraftrsquos need for repairs increased the tension surrounding the ambitious and expensive mission Lieutenant Ken Hoffman of the US Air Force who supervised the repairs attempted to reassure the public that the problem was ldquoa correctable conditionrdquo Nevertheless opponents of the mission⎯particularly those opposed to the spacecraftrsquos use of radioactive plutonium⎯worried that the rocketrsquos launch might release hazardous materials Michio Kaku a City University of New York physics professor said that despite NASArsquos announcement that it could quickly correct the problem the leak was ldquojust one more indication that NASA does not have things under controlrdquo299

10 August Astronauts aboard Shuttle Discovery successfully tested a new robotic arm considerably smaller than Discoveryrsquos massive 50-foot (15-meter) crane intended for tasks of higher precision Discoveryrsquos crew used the arm to unlock a cargo bay door and lift a small box NASA had engineered the Japanese-made robotic arm for US$100 million expecting that it would eventually serve astronauts aboard the ISS Of the robotic armrsquos test performance astronaut Stephen K Robinson stated simply ldquoit operated beautifullyrdquo300

13 August NASA and the Boeing Company unveiled a new stitching machine that experts believed would change the method of fabricating aircraft wing structures The demonstration took place at Boeing Stitched Composites Development Center in Huntington Beach California The project team of engineers had replaced the large metal structures used in airplanes with strong but light composite materials By reducing the weight of an airplane engineers hoped to decrease fuel usage with the eventual result of cost savings for consumers Rather than using rivets to hold together an airplanersquos wings the NASA-developed stitching machine sewed together precut fabric layers in the shape of a wing Next the machine added braided stiffener materials to the wing before setting the wing skeleton with resin The process created a wing as strong as one built with metal structures but at a fraction of the weight301

14 August Two Russian Space Agency cosmonauts Vasili V Tsibliyev and Alexander I Lazutkin returned to Earth after spending more than six months aboard the Mir space station The New York Times echoed the feelings of many in the space community calling the six months the Russians had spent in space ldquosix of the least glorious months in the history of manned space flightrdquo During their departure from Mir Tsibliyev and Lazutkin continued to experience the same type of problem that had characterized their tenure on board the space station The two cosmonauts scheduled to disengage from Mir in the Soyuz spacecraft and then to circle the space station cancelled the exercise because of concern that the two spacecraft would collide After the cosmonauts landed in the desert of Kazakhstan Tsibliyev recounted to an international press corps the difficult mission that he and Lazutkin had endured aboard Mir remarking that the two cosmonauts should not become the scapegoats for Russiarsquos problems in space The collision

299 Robyn Suriano ldquoCassini Wonrsquot Be Delayedrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 9 August 1997 300Associated Press ldquoAstronauts Aboard Discovery Test New Japanese Robot Armrdquo 9 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Tests a Robot Built To Spacewalkrdquo 11 August 1997 301 NASA ldquoNew Manufacturing Method Could Lower Air Travel Costsrdquo news release 97-176 13 August 1997

87


between the Progress cargo craft and Mir had occurred during the two menrsquos tenure and shortly thereafter doctors had diagnosed Tsibliyevrsquos irregular heartbeat Space officials planned extensive debriefings for the two men Meanwhile President Boris N Yeltsin congratulated the cosmonauts for their ldquopersistence courage and heroismrdquo in spite of his having claimed only days earlier that the recent problems with Mir were solely the result of human error302

Abe Silverstein received the Guggenheim Medal honoring his significant contributions to the advancement of flight Silversteinrsquos 40-year career at NASA had included a period as the Director of Lewis Research Center The citation praised him for his leadership in the Mercury and Gemini programs and for ldquoadvancing technology of aircraft and propulsion performancerdquo as well as crediting him with proposing the name ldquoApollordquo for the lunar landing mission Previous winners of the Guggenheim Medal included Orville Wright William E Boeing and Charles A Lindbergh303

18 August Mirrsquos main computer failed during a cargo craft docking setting the Russian space station adrift The malfunction postponed a planned spacewalk to begin repairs to Mir forcing the crew to turn its attention to reorienting the space station toward the Sun The crew shut down most of Mirrsquos operating systems to conserve power304

19 August Shuttle Discovery returned to Earth landing at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida after a 12-day mission devoted to environmental research The crew hoped that the atmospheric data gathered during the mission would help scientists understand the ozone damage and climate change affecting Earth305

25 August NASA launched an unpiloted Delta rocket carrying the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) a US$100 million solar-observatory satellite bound on a 1 million-mile (16 million-kilometer) journey The launch took place one day later than expected because on the original launch date a commercial fishing boat had come within range of the launch danger zone Scientists launched ACE toward an imaginary point 1 million miles (16 million kilometers) from Earth and 92 million miles (148 million kilometers) from the Sun a point at which scientists believe that the gravity of the Earth and Sun balance each other NASA planned for ACE to orbit for as long as five years analyzing particles streaming from the Sun In keeping with NASArsquos focus on improved efficiency NASA engineers collaborated with the Boeing Company to build ACE and launch the mission at a cost of US$200 million⎯more than US$30 million under budget306

302 Daniel Williams ldquoCosmonauts Return Safely from Spacerdquo Washington Post 15 August 1997 Michael Spencer ldquoTroubled Mirrsquos Crew Leaves Landing Safely in Kazakhstanrdquo New York Times 15 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoMir Crew Returns to Earth Safely but to Many Questionsrdquo 14 August 1997 303 NASA ldquoFormer NASA Official Receives Guggenheim Medalrdquo news release 97-177 14 August 1997 304 Shannon Tangonan ldquoComputer Shutdown Sends Mir Adriftrdquo USA Today 19 August 1997 Michael Specter ldquoComputer Failure on the Mir Sends It Out of Controlrdquo New York Times 19 August 1997 305 Mark Carreau ldquoWersquore Very Very Happy Shuttle Crew Says of Flightrdquo Houston Chronicle 20 August 1997

88


SEPTEMBER 1997

2 September Astronaut F Story Musgrave retired from NASA after 30 years of service and six Shuttle flights During his more than 1200 hours in space Musgrave had flown on the first voyage of Challenger and had been a member of the first crew to service the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Flying aboard STS-80 in 1996 Musgrave became the oldest person to fly in space NASA Director of Flight Crew Operations David C Leestma said of Musgrave ldquothroughout the Shuttle program from its earliest stages to the present Story has been instrumental in developing the techniques crew members use to perform spacewalksrdquo307

3 September The embattled effort to launch the Cassini spacecraft suffered a setback when NASA engineers discovered ripped insulation in its Huygens probe while the craft was sitting on the launchpad in Cape Canaveral Florida Investigators concluded that a ground-air-conditioner malfunction had caused the tears The possibility of a launch delay even for only a few days concerned scientists because Saturn was moving farther and farther from Earth A longer journey to Saturn would require the spacecraft to use more fuel for transport leaving less for scientific exploration The Cassini Mission to Saturn had received significant public criticism because 72 pounds (33 kilograms) of plutonium⎯the largest amount of radioactive material ever rocketed into space⎯powered the probe Although protesters had organized marches and petitioned government officials to stop the launch NASA spokesperson Douglas Isbell had pointed out NASArsquos perfect record of using nuclear fuel safely Scientists from the European Space Agency and NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) had planned and engineered the building of the 23rd nuclear-powered Cassini for the 11-year mission Experts from both sides of the Atlantic were optimistic that engineers would repair the insulation damage quickly308

4 September Using the HST astronomers from a number of universities and other institutions reported in Science that they had discovered a massive crater on the asteroid Vesta Scientists had long suspected that the asteroid might have a large crater because Vesta is the ldquoparent bodyrdquo of many smaller asteroids suggesting that a significant collision once occurred on Vesta However even with hints of such a history the sheer size of Vestarsquos crater surprised the observers Measuring 285 miles (469 kilometers) across the crater was nearly equal to Vestarsquos 330-mile (531shykilometer) diameter Scientists had waited for the asteroid to move closer to Earth so that they could examine its surface closely In May 1996 Vesta had moved within 110 million miles (177 million kilometers) of Earth its closest approach in a decade The science team stated further

306 Associated Press ldquoAfter 1-Day Delay NASA Launches Bargain-Priced Solar Observatoryrdquo 25 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoLaunch Delayed by Errant Shrimpersrdquo 25 August 1997 307 NASA ldquoAstronaut Story Musgrave Retires from NASArdquo news release 97-188 2 September 1997 308 John Noble Wilford ldquoDelay Expected for Spacecraft Going to Saturnrdquo New York Times 4 September 1997 John Kennedy and Seth Borenstein ldquoNuclear Launch Draws Protestrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 30 August 1997 Sharon K Spry ldquoDanger of Cassini Accident Too Greatrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 31 August 1997 Associated Press ldquoMishap May Delay Mission to Saturnrdquo 4 September 1997

89


that unveiling Vestarsquos complexion and history had yielded new insights into the effects of ldquoa large impact on a small objectrdquo309

6 September British-born US astronaut C Michael Foale and Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Y Solovyev conducted a 6-hour spacewalk outside the Mir space station to investigate further the damage caused by the June 1997 collision with a robotic supply craft However they were unable to find the puncture that space officials believed Mir had sustained The exercise was only the second joint spacewalk of a US astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut During the excursion Foale used a crane to hoist Solovyev toward the damaged region of the craft The two crew members endured temperatures ranging from 200degF (93degC) when Mir was in the sunlight to -150degF (-101degC) when it passed into the darkness Although Foale had spent many hours preparing for the spacewalk learning how to maneuver in the heavy Russian spacesuit he still exercised extreme caution to avoid snagging the suit on of Mirrsquos jagged edges NASA had approved Foalersquos participation in the spacewalk only shortly before it occurred310

9 September Mars Global Surveyor passed a critical test on its journey toward the Red Planet when it successfully opened valves allowing high-pressure rocket propellant to enter its fuel lines The same task had thwarted the 1993 Mars Observer at a similar juncture during its trip to Mars Mars Global Surveyor had traveled for 10 months and for more than 435 million miles (700 million kilometers) to reach Mars According to Glenn E Cunningham of NASArsquos JPL the process of transforming Global Surveyor from a high-speed-travel spacecraft into a slow-moving craft subject to Marsrsquos gravitational pull was ldquoa nail-biterrdquo Without the powerful propellant the transition could not occur which would have ended any hope of the missionrsquos gathering data With the opening of the valves complete NASA scientists were optimistic that the US$250 million probe would descend slowly into a tight orbit of Mars yielding new information about the planet311

10 September Software magnate James W Benson announced the formation of SpaceDev a new company focused on launching a robotic craft to an asteroid Benson argued that space ldquois a place not a government projectrdquo claiming that his company would gather new scientific data for a fraction of the money NASA spent annually on space exploration Specifically Benson stated that his Near Earth Asteroid Prospector would land on an asteroid gathering images and scientific readings He estimated that his company could complete such a feat for under US$50 million about US$200 million less than NASArsquos budget for a comparable mission Benson and SpaceDev entered the realm of space exploration with overtly capitalist intentions Benson planned to sell the data the company gathered to NASA and to universities for profit

309 Peter C Thomas et al ldquoImpact Excavation on Asteroid 4 Vesta Hubble Space Telescope Resultsrdquo Science 277 no 5331 (5 September 1997) 1492minus1495 NASA ldquoHubble Reveals Huge Crater on the Surface of the Asteroid Vestardquo news release 97-191 4 September 1997 310 Michael R Gordon ldquoAstronauts Fail To Locate a Puncture in Crippled Mirrdquo New York Times 7 September 1997 Michael Gordon ldquoRussian and American Astronauts Begin Space Walkrdquo New York Times 6 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoUS Astronaut Gets NASArsquos Approval for Space Walk Outside Mirrdquo 5 September 1997 311 Paul Hoversten ldquoMars Surveyor Passes Key Testrdquo USA Today 10 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoCraft Bound for Mars Clears Crucial Hurdlerdquo 10 September 1997

90


Additionally SpaceDev consultants estimated that asteroids might contain significant deposits of gold and other precious metals worth US$1ndash4 trillion which would become the property of whoever succeeded in accessing it Of his overall theory on space and science Benson clarified ldquoWhen we deliver science we expect to get paid We expect a profit We offer more science for the dollarrdquo312

11 September NASA the US Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration signed a joint memorandum of agreement providing guidelines for commercial spaceports The agreement was the culmination of a long debate over how the federal government could encourage private companies and state governments to use available federal launch sites The White House Office of Science and Technology initiative had proposed the agreement which sought to limit the regulatory steps a private company would have to take to become a launch-site operator The measure continued the federal governmentrsquos trend of encouraging private industry to explore

313space

Mars Global Surveyor fired its engine enabling Marsrsquos gravitational pull to capture it Researchers from NASArsquos JPL declared that the spacecraft had behaved exactly as planned during the crucial entry to Marsrsquos gravitational field Experts predicted that the mission would produce 700 million bits of data more than the amount acquired in all previous Mars missions combined The mapping mission continued a new era of Mars exploration for NASA involving dozens of probes surveying the planetrsquos surface and atmosphere314

12 September For the first time NASA turned over control of a satellite project to a group of non-NASA scientists placing the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) under the control of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard University Harvard scientists had designed and built the satellite but in previous NASA-university collaborations NASA had always maintained control over implementation projects that it had funded NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin said that NASA hoped the move would embolden non-NASA scientists ldquoWhat we wanted to do is get the scientists closer to their spacecraft and close to their sources of datardquo NASA intended the AXAF which had cost US$14 billion to develop to study black holes and collisions between stars and galaxies315

NASA announced that in one week engineers had completed repairs to the damaged insulation of the Huygens probe a part of the Cassini Mission to Saturn Some scientists had feared that the tears to the insulation would set back the ambitious mission indefinitely NASA engineers however had worked rapidly to disassemble the probe completely inspect the damage and make the appropriate repairs Additionally during the repair period the project had received a

312 Associated Press ldquoCompany Promotes First Private Launch to Asteroidrdquo 10 September 1997 313 NASA ldquoNASA DOD and FAA Sign Joint Agreement on Spaceports Launch Guidancerdquo news release 97-194 11 September 1997 314 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNew Visitor from Earth Poised for Mars Orbitrdquo Washington Post 11 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoEverything lsquoPerfectrsquo as Surveyor Craft in Countdown to Mars Orbitrdquo 11 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoMars Global Surveyorrdquo 12 September 1997 315 Jules Crittenden ldquoX-ray Tour of the Universe To Begin in Cambridge Labrdquo Boston Herald 13 September 1997 Peter J Howe ldquoPutting the Universe into Focusrdquo Boston Globe 13 September 1997

91


welcome voice of support from the National Space Society an independent space advocacy organization The Society had issued a statement expressing its full confidence in NASA and in the mission offsetting the protests against the missionrsquos use of nuclear fuel The National Space Society declared ldquosaying lsquonorsquo to Cassini would be saying lsquonorsquo to knowledgerdquo defending the use of nuclear power as the only safe and viable option for such a lengthy mission ldquoCassinirsquos Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) have proven their safety and capability in 23 prior missions including human missions RTGs are the only realistic option for sending probes great distances from the Sun and will certainly play a part in future human missionsrdquo316

15 September The Mir space station nearly collided with a US military satellite forcing Mirrsquos crew to prepare hastily for an emergency exit When the satellite came within 500 to 1000 yards (457 to 914 meters) of Mir US astronaut C Michael Foale and the two resident Russian cosmonauts sealed themselves in the Soyuz spacecraft so that they would be able to leave if the satellite hit the station According to NASA problems with space debris and close encounters between satellites are common but usually miles rather than yards separated the rapidly traveling spacecraft Russian space officials had taken a different approach to the situation than their American counterparts would have chosen Rather than ordering Mir to adjust its position as NASA had instructed Shuttle crews to do when debris approach Russian officials had ordered Mirrsquos crew back into Soyuz prepared to take off immediately The near miss of Mir and the satellite was not the first time that Mir had received a collision alert NASA had begun monitoring Mirrsquos path when American astronauts joined the permanent crew and reported that space debris passed within a few kilometers of Mir about once every six weeks317

Data gathered by the US-French satellite TOPEXPoseidon confirmed theories that a ldquofullshyblown El Nintildeo conditionrdquo existed in the Pacific Scientists believe that an El Nintildeo forms when steady westward-blowing trade winds weaken or reverse direction altering typical atmospheric jet-stream patterns around the world TOPEXPoseidon measured sea-surface heights and atmospheric water vapor to confirm the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationrsquos earlier prediction Based on previous El Nintildeo events scientists predicted heavy rainfall for the western United States mild winters in the east and extreme droughts in Australia Africa and Indonesia318

18 September US House Committee on Science and Technology Chairperson F James Sensenbrenner Jr (RshyWI) issued a recommendation that NASA cancel its plan to replace C Michael Foale aboard Mir with another astronaut Sensenbrenner issued the bipartisan statement with US Representative George F Brown Jr (D-CA) calling on NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin to alter the plan for the next Shuttle mission retrieving Foale without delivering another American to the station ldquoI donrsquot think the increased risk is worth the benefitrdquo Sensenbrenner told reporters after a 4-hour

316 NASA ldquoRepair Work on Cassini Huygens Probe Completed Successfullyrdquo news release 97-198 12 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoNational Space Society Adds to Support for Saturn Missionrdquo 9 September 1997 317 Edmund L Andrews ldquoSatellite Gives Mir One More Close Callrdquo New York Times 17 September 1997 Shannon Tangonan ldquoToo-Close Satellite Gives Mir a Scarerdquo USA Today 17 September 1997 318 NASA ldquoIndependent NASA Satellite Measurements Confirm El Nintildeo Is Back and Strongrdquo news release 97-200 15 September 1997

92


hearing on Mirrsquos safety issues Goldin testified that despite some setbacks NASA had no reason to suspect that sending an American astronaut to Mir was more dangerous than any other space exploration NASArsquos ShuttlendashMir Program Director Frank L Culbertson Jr responded to Sensenbrennerrsquos comments ldquoI take the safety of my friends [the astronauts] very seriously and would not send anyone on something that I would not do myselfrdquo The hearing was the first time that NASA had formally defended the safety of Mir to Congress319

22 September Vice President Albert A Gore Jr began talks with officials in Russia focused primarily on the International Space Station (ISS) economic cooperation and controlling nuclear proliferation The talks occurred in the context of a torrent of problems aboard Russiarsquos Mir space station and in Russiarsquos failures to meet its commitments to help build the ISS NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin traveled with the Vice President to participate in the space-related discussions320

25 September NASArsquos Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida for Mission STS-86 The launch took place only hours after an independent task force chaired by astronaut Lieutenant General Thomas P Stafford II reported that the Mir mission was sufficiently safe for the American astronauts Specifically the panel had determined that sending astronaut David A Wolf to replace C Michael Foale aboard the Russian space station would be reasonable as well as important to continuing scientific research NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin made the last-minute decision for the mission to go forward after weighing the panelrsquos findings against NASArsquos risk reports and the opinions of the House Committee on Science and Technology Committee Chairperson F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) had been particularly aggressive in calling for the end of the program to place astronauts aboard Mir for significant periods James D Wetherbee served as Commander of Space Shuttle Atlantis embarking on his fourth flight to space The Shuttle also carried Jean-Loup Chreacutetien of the French Space Agency Vladimir G Titov of the Russian Space Agency Pilot Michael J Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Scott E Parazynski Wendy B Lawrence and David A Wolf The Shuttle carried the SPACEHAB module in its payload with supplies for Mir research and logistical equipment aboard321

OCTOBER 1997

1 October Cosmonaut Vladimir G Titov and Mission Specialist Scott E Parazynski made a 5-hour spacewalk outside Mir to test jetpack systems and to retrieve experiments for return to Earth The two men who left Atlantis while the Shuttle remained docked with Mir became the first Russian-American team ever to conduct a spacewalk from a NASA Shuttle The joint spacewalk

319 Larry Wheeler ldquoPanel to NASA Stay Off Mirrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 19 September 1997 Knight- Ridder News Service ldquoTop Congressmen Say US Astronaut Shouldnrsquot Board Mirrdquo 19 September 1997 320 Reuters ldquoAl Gore in Moscow for Talks on Space Energyrdquo 21 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoGore Calls for Reforms To Boost Investment in Russiardquo 22 September 1997 321 NASA ldquoPanels Give Astronaut a lsquoGorsquo for Launch to Mirrdquo news release 97-214 25 September 1997 NASA ldquoAstronaut Wolf Continuing American Presence on Mir Joint US-Russian Spacewalk Highlights STS-86 Missionrdquo news release J97-27 September 1997 Traci Watson ldquoAmid Controversy Atlantis Lifts Offrdquo USA Today 26 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoAstronaut Leaves for Tour on Mirrdquo 26 September 1997

93


was also the first in which Mir crew members used NASA spacesuits rather than those provided by the Russian Space Agency On this busy day of operations two of the Russian crew also successfully installed a new guidance computer which Atlantis had transported to the station322

NASA announced that the construction schedule for the International Space Station (ISS) remained on target to begin delivery launches in December 1998 All 15 nations participating in the building of the ISS had traveled to Johnson Space Center (JSC) to finalize the stationrsquos construction sequence and compare progress updates The international consortium agreed on a 45-flight sequence for delivering the already-assembled portions of the station from Earth to their orbiting home To assemble the colossal station completely NASA and its partners planned five years of steady launch-and-construct missions expecting to send the US-constructed Node 1 into space sometime during June 1998323

3 October The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy formally approved the mid-October launch plan of the controversial plutonium-powered Cassini Mission Critics had subjected to intense scrutiny the exploratory mission to Saturn and its moon Titan because it used nuclear power The Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice among other organizations had protested the mission and attempted to derail it but had failed to spark widespread public outrage Activists worried that the rocket might release plutonium if the launch failed despite NASArsquos more than a dozen safe launches using the hazardous fuel The mission required nuclear power because Saturn has extremely dim sunlight⎯not enough to provide adequate solar power to prevent the Cassini spacecraftrsquos instruments from freezing NASArsquos policy required that the White House give final approval of the launch because the mission used nuclear fuel NASA had begun work on the Cassini Mission in 1989 with cooperation from the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency Many regarded the mission⎯the first time a space probe had attempted to land on the moon of another planet⎯as NASArsquos boldest and most ambitious endeavor This aspect of the mission especially interested scientists who theorized that Titan has an Earth-like atmosphere NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin said of the mission ldquoI fully expect that it will return spectacular images and scientific data about Saturnrdquo324

4 October The international scientific community observed the 40th anniversary of Sputnikrsquos successful launch On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union had sent into orbit Sputnik I a small sphere-shaped satellite setting off a space race that continued throughout the Cold War Although the United States had initially responded to the Soviet Unionrsquos achievement with fear and apprehension NASA commemorated the event 40 years later with a celebratory symposium The United States had launched NASA itself less than one year after the USSRrsquos Sputnik success partly because of the American publicrsquos distress over the Soviets beating the United States into space The son of

322 Robyn Suriano ldquoSpacewalkrdquo USA Today 1 October 1997 Mark Carreau ldquoAtlantis Mir Crews Prepare for Spacewalk Computer Taskrdquo Houston Chronicle 1 October 1997 323 NASA ldquoControl Board Reports International Space Station Launch on Target Finalizes Assembly Sequencerdquo news release 97-222 1 October 1997 324 NASA ldquoCassini To Survey Worlds of Saturn and Titan Sends First Probe to Moon of Another Planetrdquo news release 97-190 3 September 1997 NASA ldquoNASA Receives Approval To Launch Cassini Missionrdquo news release 97-225 3 October 1997 Maurice Tamman ldquoProtestors Set Stagerdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 29 September 1997

94


Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev Sergei N Khrushchev a prominent professor of International Studies at Brown University in Rhode Island spoke at NASArsquos Sputnik symposium With the fall of the Soviet Union Russia had unveiled to the worldrsquos scientists many of the developmental plans of the Sputnik program However the end of communism had also precipitated enormous budget shortfalls for the Russian Space Agency Kazakhstanrsquos President Nursultan Nazarbayev took the opportunity of Sputnikrsquos widely celebrated anniversary to complain publicly that Russia owed more than US$400 million in rent for Baikonur Cosmodrome⎯the site of Sputnikrsquos launch and of ongoing Russian space activity When the Soviet confederation broke up Russia had agreed to pay US$100 million annually for the right to continue using the launch facilities in Kazakhstan325

6 October Shuttle Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida safely returning British-born US astronaut C Michael Foale to Earth after his 145-day stay aboard Mir Foalersquos tenure in space was among the longest in NASArsquos history surpassed only by Shannon W Lucidrsquos 188-day mission Although Foale was determined to return to Earthrsquos gravity in good physical condition NASA doctors planned to keep the astronaut under medical supervision for several days326

7 October NASA announced that astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had identified the most luminous star ever charted The ldquocelestial mammothrdquo large enough to fill the diameter of the Earthrsquos orbit reportedly releases up to 10 million times the power of the Sun The team from the University of California at Los Angeles estimated that the star possibly as old as 3 million years weighs up to 200 times the mass of the Sun The team nicknamed it the Pistol Star because it has a pistol-shaped nebula Despite the starrsquos mass and brightness it was not visible to the naked eye because of the interstellar dust clouds between Earth and the center of the Milky Way Therefore astronomers had used infrared technology to observe the star Team researcher Mark R Morris argued that the discovery of the massive star near the center of the galaxy would force scientists to rethink their conceptions of how stars formed in the first place327

8 October After more than nine days without sending a signal Mars Pathfinderrsquos main transmitter resiliently delivered a message to Earth To anxious project managers the message was a welcome relief The breakdown in the spacecraftrsquos communication to NASA controllers had necessitated NASArsquos activating a contingency plan for Sojourner The rover had stopped gathering data and reverted to slowly circling its parent spacecraft waiting to receive directions a pattern that some scientists feared would be the long-term fate of the rover The spacecraftrsquos aging batteries had caused the breakdown in communication of data However in spite of the malfunction NASA officials reiterated that the mission had fulfilled its objectives emphasizing

325 NASA ldquoReconsidering Sputnik Forty Years Since the Soviet Satelliterdquo news release N97-64 5 September 1997 Associated Press ldquoPlea for Rent Marks Sputnik Anniversaryrdquo 5 October 1997 326 Mark Carreau ldquoAstronaut Ends Marathon Ride Foale Lands on Shuttle After 145 Days Aboard Russian Space Stationrdquo Houston Chronicle 7 October 1997 327 Associated Press ldquoSpace Monsterrdquo 8 October 1997 NASA ldquoHubble Identifies What May Be the Most Luminous Star Knownrdquo news release 97-227 7 October 1997

95


that solving the problem of communicating with the craft while it was resting on the Red Planet would benefit future explorations of Mars328

Mars Pathfinder scientists announced that Mars appeared to have a crust a mantle and an iron core⎯attributes similar to those of Earth The researchers suggested that Mars may once have been warm and wet although they remained unable to determine whether Mars had a molten core such as that of Earth or Mercury or a ldquodeadrdquo core such as that of the Earthrsquos Moon The findings contributed to growing evidence that Mars might be more than a solid ball of rock and that the planet might once have had water and life Signs of possible erosion and weathering encouraged such hypotheses as well although scientists clarified that proof of such theories was still probably years away329

A Russian cargo spacecraft docked without incident at the Mir space station using the craftrsquos automatic pilot to complete the maneuver It was the first successful docking after two previous failed attempts one of which had resulted in the crash that seriously damaged Mir To address the earlier problem the Russian Space Agency had reconfigured the mathematical formula guiding the procedure The Progress M-36 cargo craft carried a backup computer for the space station Mirrsquos crew planned to unload the more than 6000 pounds (2700 kilograms) of cargo in the days following the delightfully uneventful docking330

10 October NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) selected Scientific and Commercial Systems Corporation of Falls Church Virginia to provide support services for its Huntsville Alabama facilities The US$66 million contract included transportation and equipment services as well as publishing mail and food support MSFC arranged the contract as a cost-plus-incentive-fee performance-based contract to provide NASA with cost savings as well as with flexibility to reorganize services as necessary331

14 October NASA announced that new smart software with more realistic landing simulations for Shuttle pilots would become an integral part of astronaut flight training Hamid Berenji Ping-Wei Chang and Steven R Swanson of JSC engineered the software which used ldquoadaptive fuzzy logicrdquo allowing the program to learn from experience and to function in a manner closer to human thinking than that of previous software The software team predicted that the program would help not only Shuttle pilots but also commercial pilots and even people learning to use machinery unrelated to aviation Berenji predicted that because the new training system would

328 Associated Press ldquoLacking Signal Mars Vehicle Is Left To Be Roving in Circlesrdquo 7 October 1997 Associated Press ldquoPathfinder Checks in After Weeks of Silencerdquo 8 October 1997 329 K C Cole ldquoInternal Structure of Mars Earth Similar Scientists Sayrdquo Houston Chronicle 9 October 1997 Associated Press ldquoMars Once Warm and Wet Data Suggestsrdquo 9 October 1997 Associated Press ldquoThree Mars Layers Suggests Life on Planet Was Possiblerdquo 9 October 1997 330 Washington Post ldquoCargo Ship Docks with Space Stationrdquo 9 October 1997 Associated Press ldquoSuccessful Docking Gives Mir a Life in Moralerdquo 8 October 1997 Reuters ldquoMir Crew To Unload Cargo After Text-Book Dockingrdquo 8 October 1997 331 NASA ldquoVirginia Firm Chosen To Provide NASA Institutional Servicesrdquo news release C97minusr 10 October 1997

96


be easier to use than previous programs new pilots would feel much more confident than before332

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of his most historic achievement Charles E ldquoChuckrdquo Yeager broke the speed of sound once again flying an F-15 fighter jet in Californiarsquos Mojave Desert NASA aired the recreation on NASA TV as part of its celebration at Edwards Air Force Base Some historians call Yeagerrsquos 1947 feat ldquothe greatest achievement since the first successful flight of the Wright Brothersrdquo The US Postal Service observed the anniversary by unveiling a commemorative stamp the ldquo50th Anniversary of Supersonic Flightrdquo The ceremonial jaunt was the 74-year old Yeagerrsquos last official US Air Force flight333

15 October The Cassini spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Florida beginning a seven-year 22 billion-mile (35 billion-kilometer) journey to and around Saturn After several delays including a two-day delay immediately before the launch because of high winds the takeoff was flawless Before the launch activists had protested Cassinirsquos fuel source 72 pounds (33 kilograms) of radioactive plutonium to calm public anxiety NASA planned to sample air quality at 25 stations surrounding the launchpad including several samples taken as far as 10 miles (16 kilometers) away Additionally a US Department of Energy aircraft flew through the trailing gases of the rocket booster to make sure that no radioactive material had leaked The US$34 billion mission set out to survey the planet Saturn its rings and its moon Titan Engineers had programmed the Cassini spacecraft to conduct a number of ldquogravity-assist swingbysrdquo flying twice past Venus and once past Earth and Jupiter to build up the speed necessary to make the long journey to Saturn About seven years into the mission NASA planned for Cassini to release a disc-shaped Huygens probe toward Titan Throughout the mission Cassini was to make more than 40 close flybys of Titan gathering far more vivid images of the moon than ever before NASA intended Cassinirsquos camera to take more than 300000 colored pictures of Saturn and its moons Scientists hoped that the mission would expand considerably the knowledge of the planet gained through the earlier Voyager missions334

President William J Clinton used his newly bestowed line-item veto power to cut funding for a ldquoreusable space planerdquo The US$10 million appropriation was a priority of the US Air Force Space Command and space officials In total Clintonrsquos line-item vetoes trimmed about US$144 million from the 1998 US Department of Defense appropriations bill less than one-tenth of 01 percent of the total bill335

332 H R Berenji et al ldquoRefining the Shuttle Training Aircraft Controllerrdquo Fuzzy Systems 1997 Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE International Conference 2 (1minus5 July 1997) pp 677minus682 NASA ldquoShuttle Landing Simulations To Improve with Smart Softwarerdquo news release 97-229 14 October 1997 333 Jay Levine ldquoYeager Bids Farewell to 800000-Plusrdquo Antelope Valley Press (Palmdale CA) 21 October 1997 NASA ldquoBreaking the Sound Barrier Reenactment on NASA TVrdquo news release N97-72 9 October 1997 334 NASA ldquoCassini Launchrdquo news release October 1997 Earl Lane ldquoPlutonium-Bearing Craft Set for Saturn Triprdquo Birmingham News (AL) 5 October 1997 Paul Hoversten ldquoNuclear Powered Craft Fuels Fury Before Launchrdquo USA Today 13 October 1997 Karl Grossman ldquoThe Risk of Cassini Probe Plutoniumrdquo Christian Science Monitor 10 October 1997 Associated Press ldquoCassini Spacecraft Lifts Off for Saturnrdquo 16 October 1997 335 John M Broder ldquoClinton Gently Vetoes $144 Million in Military Budget Itemsrdquo New York Times 15 October 1997 David L Chandler ldquoClinton Veto Delays Space Plane Plansrdquo Antelope Valley Press (Palmdale CA) 21 October 1997

97


20 October Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Y Solovyev and Pavel V Vinogradov conducted an ldquointernalrdquo spacewalk entering the damaged Spektr module of Mir Once inside the darkened module damaged by the June 1997 cargo craft collision the men found floating space debris Seven bags and a refrigerator door were among the items banging around inside the Spektr module After securing the debris the cosmonauts went to work installing new solar-panel cables to restore full power to Mir The cosmonauts who were wearing bulky spacesuits performed the 6-hour spacewalk inside a cramped module Although the men became exhausted before they could finish the repair work the arduous exercise had boosted the stationrsquos power supply by 30 percent Russian Space Agency officials planned for the cosmonauts to conduct another repair operation during the following days336

21 October The Pentagon announced that it had successfully tested its Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL) at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico The laser constructed under President Ronald Reaganrsquos Strategic Defense Initiative generated a beam that traveled more than 260 miles (418 kilometers) from Earth hitting an orbiting satellite According to Pentagon representative US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert Potter if turned to its highest setting MIRACL would have destroyed the satellite target The test which took place two years after the expiration of a 1985 congressional ban on tests of this type was the first time the United States had tested a laser aimed at an orbiting satellite Representatives of defense-related industries and scientists around the world debated the acceptability of such a test and the ethics of deploying the instrument However whether or not the test was justifiable the successful hit had demonstrated the vulnerability of satellites to Earth-based weapons337

23 October Representatives of NASA and the US Department of Health and Human Services signed an agreement to enlist NASA technologies in the fight against breast cancer and other womenrsquos illnesses creating a cooperative framework for the exchange of research information between the two agencies According to Carolyn A Krebs of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center the technology allowing HST to map distant galaxies also had the potential to scan human tissue for malignant masses338

28 October NASA announced the retirement of J Wayne Littles Director of MSFC Littles had served as Director from 1996 to 1997 the capstone to his 30-year career at the facility Wayne Littles had twice received the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive339

336 David Hoffman ldquoA Partial Repair Gives Mir a Power Boostrdquo Washington Post 21 October 1997 Associated Press ldquoA Spacewalk of Surprises Aboard Mirrdquo 21 October 1997 337 Associated Press ldquoLaser Test-Fired into Space Strikes Orbiting US Satelliterdquo 21 October 1997 338 NASA ldquoNASAHeath and Human Services To Join Forces To Fight Womenrsquos Illnessesrdquo news release N97-74 20 October 1997 339 NASA ldquoMarshall Center Director Dr Wayne Littles To Retirerdquo news release 97-247 28 October 1997

98


NOVEMBER 1997

3 November Mir cosmonauts Anatoly Y Solovyev and Pavel V Vinogradov engaged in a 6-hour spacewalk successfully dismantling a damaged solar panel so that Mirrsquos crew could install a replacement panel The Russian Space Agency nearly called off the spacewalk when Solovyev discovered a problem with the radio-monitoring system on his spacesuit just as the men prepared to leave the station Although the crewrsquos attempts to repair the monitoring system were unsuccessful Russian Mission Control eventually decided to proceed with the spacewalk The cosmonauts worked effectively communicating with Russian space officials only periodically This was Solovyevrsquos fourth spacewalk during his tenure on Mir confirming his status as the worldrsquos most experienced spacewalker with more than a dozen spacewalks to his credit While the cosmonauts worked outside Mir US astronaut David A Wolf monitored their progress from inside340

4 November After a four-month mission NASA officials announced that Mission Control had halted communications with Mars Pathfinder and its rover Sojourner Sojournerrsquos batteries were nearly drained and many of the roverrsquos instruments had frozen in Marsrsquos harsh climate Mission controllers expected the rover simply to come to a halt on Marsrsquos vast plains ceasing signal transmissions altogether Nevertheless NASA considered the US$266 million mission largely successful The mission had lasted much longer than planned transmitting from the surface of the Red Planet to Earth nearly 10000 pictures of the Martian landscape including images showing evidence of erosion as well as more than 12 billion bits of data Sojournerrsquos remarkable service even in the midst of harsh dust storms and temperatures reaching -50degF (-6degC) had excited scientists and public alike Mars Pathfinder Web sites had received more than 565 million hits during the missionrsquos tenure Using the treasure trove of information Pathfinder had gathered scientists had concluded that Marsrsquos surface had many similarities to that of Earth Perhaps the most compelling was the evidence compiled during the mission in support of the theory that at one time Mars had water on its surface In addition the missionrsquos research team concluded that water and wind had played crucial roles in shaping the planetrsquos surface Mission controllers spoke of their gratitude for the data gathered which would keep scientists busy for years as well as about their excitement at the possibility of building upon Mars Pathfinderrsquos success in future missions341

5 November A team of scientists from the University of California at Riverside announced that NASArsquos orbiting Compton Gamma Ray Observatory had enabled them to discover a ldquovast halordquo of gamma rays surrounding the Milky Way Galaxy The astronomers clarified that the discovery of the halo did not make clear how or why the gamma rays encircled the galaxy NASArsquos orbiting Compton Gamma Ray Observatory uses gamma rays to expose highly energetic particles that would otherwise be invisible because of their absorption in the atmosphere The scientific community greeted the discovery with interest and questions342

340 Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 3 November 1997 341 Paul Hoversten ldquoMars Pathfinder Comes to Quiet End Todayrdquo USA Today 4 November 1997 Reuters ldquoNASA Announces End of Mars Pathfinder Missionrdquo 5 November 1997 342 K C Cole ldquoHalo Around Milky Way Reportedrdquo Los Angeles Times 6 November 1997 Reuters ldquoGamma Rays Found Surrounding Milky Wayrdquo 5 November 1997

99


Russian Space Agency spokesperson Sergei Gorbunov announced the agencyrsquos support for a film company to shoot a Hollywood-style movie aboard Mir Russian director Yuri Kara had submitted a proposal to bring actors and film crews to Mir to shoot the film entitled ldquoSpace Flight Has a Pricerdquo Although the Russian Space Agency had not officially approved the project the cash-strapped agency welcomed the unique opportunity to earn money The biggest obstacle to the project seemed to be finding financial backers willing to pay to send Kararsquos crew into space The prospect of filming a movie aboard Mir raised some concerns in the space community but Kara noted that Russian cosmonauts already had acting experience having filmed commercials aboard the space station for products including Pepsi-Cola Omega watches and Israeli milk343

6 November A group of astronomers announced that they had used NASArsquos Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer to observe a black hole ldquoliterally dragging space and time around itself as it rotatesrdquo The discovery confirmed the existence of frame dragging an extrapolation of Albert Einsteinrsquos general theory of relativity According to the findings the black hole had such a massive gravitational field that nothing nearby not even light could escape its pull To make the discovery the team of researchers brought together academic scientists from Italy and the United States as well as NASA personnel By studying x-ray emissions the astronomers were able to find a pattern of forces that clearly revealed the strength of the black holersquos gravitational pull Alan N Bunner Director of the Structure and Evolution of the Universe Program at NASA Headquarters called the discovery ldquoexciting workrdquo encouraging scientists to test the findings Before the discovery frame dragging persisted as one of the last unverifiable theories of relativity which scientists had suspected but had been unable to observe Popular press reports touted the breakthrough as another victory for Einstein344

NASA announced that lighting technology developed to grow plants in space might help treat cancerous brain tumors in children According to a series of trials some tumor-fighting drugs performed more proficiently when illuminated with the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) created for NASArsquos Shuttle plant experiments To gauge further the effectiveness of LEDs in assisting cancer-fighting drugs Dr Harry Whelan of the Medical College of Milwaukee obtained permission from the Food and Drug Administration to use the LEDs on a limited number of children with cancer Whelanrsquos method involved injecting his patient with cancer-fighting drugs and then placing an LED probe near the affected area Whelan believed that the light focused the drugs on the dangerous tumors only leaving the rest of the patientrsquos brain unaffected NASArsquos Small Business Innovation Research program allowing small businesses to adapt NASArsquos technologies for extended public uses initiated the trial of LEDs to fight cancer345

7 November

343 Associated Press ldquoMir⎯the Movierdquo 5 November 1997 344 NASA ldquoFirst Observation of Space-Time Distortion by Black Holesrdquo news release 97-258 6 November 1997 KC Cole ldquoFinding Backs Einsteinrsquos Theory of Gravityrdquo Los Angeles Times 7 November 1997 Kathy Sawyer ldquoScore Another One for Einsteinrdquo Washington Post 7 November 1997 345 NASA ldquoSpace Research Shines a Light on Tumors To Save Livesrdquo news release 97-259 6 November 1997

100


Following on the heels of Mars Pathfinderrsquos successful mission to map the surface of Mars two researchers used sonar information and satellite images to create a highly detailed map of the global ocean floor another largely unexplored area David T Sandwell of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Walter H F Smith of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration improved by 30 times the precision of the worldrsquos most exact ocean maps Their new map revealing ridges and canyons never before delineated helped explain ocean currents and tides across the world The new mapping technology interested oil companies looking for clues to the location of fossil fuel deposits and fishermen seeking likely habitats of fish346

10 November Geochemists from the University of Michigan and the University of Tennessee announced that they had arrived at the most accurate and precise estimation of the age and origin of the Moon yet calculated They suggested that a collision between the Earth and another planet 45 to 452 billion years ago resulted in the creation of the Moon To reach their conclusion the researchers used a special spectrometry technique to examine 21 lunar samples The scientists also concluded that the collision had set Moonrsquos orbit347

13 November After altering the spacecraftrsquos path to move it farther away from Marsrsquos violent winds NASA launched Mars Global Surveyor from its safe elliptical orbit of the Red Planet sending the spacecraft into the planetrsquos harsh atmosphere NASA officials indicated that because of the change in flight plans Mars Global Surveyor would begin its mapping mission of Mars in 1999 one year later than originally planned The change of plan highlighted both the difficulty of exploring Mars and NASArsquos ability to adapt to difficult conditions When Marsrsquos atmosphere had proven more hostile than previously anticipated mission controllers had proven able to readjust Surveyorrsquos orbit In effect the move had placed Surveyor in a holding pattern keeping it from harm Once conditions had improved however NASA would not be able simply to proceed as planned Because Surveyor ran on solar power the mission planners must wait for Mars and the Sun to realign to provide energy for the craft However although NASA would have to postpone the mission for one year the delay would provide an added benefit allowing NASArsquos researchers to set Surveyor on a circular orbit that would actually bring Surveyor closer to the planet than originally projected348

NASA announced the retirement of Wilbur C Trafton who had guided NASArsquos International Space Station (ISS) planning for nearly four years Trafton resigned from his position as Director of the Space Station Program one week after a contentious hearing in which NASA officials informed Congress that cost overruns on the ISS had reached nearly US$1 billion However at Traftonrsquos departure NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin praised him stating ldquoWill Trafton has met or exceeded all of the challenges I have placed before himrdquo During Traftonrsquos tenure

346 Robert Lee Hotz ldquoMap Dramatically Deepens Learning About Sea Floorrdquo Los Angeles Times 7 November 1997 347 United Press International ldquoResearchers Narrow Moonrsquos Origins Agerdquo 10 November 1997 348 John Noble Wilford ldquoMars Map Will Come a Year Laterdquo New York Times 11 November 1997 Mark Carreau ldquoMars Map Still on Taprdquo Houston Chronicle 11 November 1997 A J Hostetler ldquoSurveyor Has New Courserdquo Times-Dispatch (Richmond VA) 13 November 1997

101


Russia had officially joined the ISS effort as a full partner and the ISS had moved from planning stage to construction349

17 November Reaffirming their commitment to the international consortiumrsquos expensive and increasingly complicated task of constructing Mirrsquos replacement NASA and the Russian Space Agency announced appointments to the first four crews that would live and work aboard the ISS NASA chose astronaut William M Shepherd as the first expedition commander Russia selected cosmonauts Yuri P Gidzenko and Sergei K Krikalev to accompany Shepherd on the first increment crew The second crew would have a Russian commander Yury V Usachev accompanied by a crew of American astronauts James S Voss and Susan J Helms Each member of the first two crews possessed significant space experience Moreover the selection of the crews represented careful diplomatic choices meant to support the strong but still strained space partnership of the United States and Russia350

18 November The Assignation Records Review Board made public more than 1500 pages of classified records including a memorandum detailing a plan to blame Prime Minister Fidel Castro and the government of the Republic of Cuba if astronaut John H Glenn Jrrsquos attempt to orbit Earth in the Mercury capsule was unsuccessful The 2 February 1962 document stated ldquoby manufacturing various pieces of evidence which would prove electronic interference on the part of the Cubansrdquo the United States could shift the blame to Castro Glennrsquos safe return to Earth rendered any such plans unnecessary351

19 November Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from Earth on Mission STS-87 with great fanfare executing an unusual 180deg roll 6 minutes into the 8frac12-minute flight a maneuver planned to put the Shuttle in radio contact with communication satellites The launch itself took place at the ldquoexact moment on the exact day as plannedrdquo for the sixth consecutive mission The six-person crew included Takao Doi a Japanese astronaut who planned to make his countryrsquos first spacewalk Kalpana Chawla the first Indian-born woman to travel into space Leonid K Kadenyuk the first Ukrainian to fly on a US Shuttle and US astronauts Kevin R Kregel Steven W Lindsey and Winston E Scott The crew planned to conduct a spacewalk to test instruments and procedures for the ISS The Shuttle also carried the US Microgravity Payload-4 which the astronauts planned to use to test the responses to conditions in space of a variety of materials and liquids352

24 November

349 NASA Trafton Announces His Departure from NASArdquo news release 97-264 13 November 1997 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoNASArsquos Space Station Chief Resignsrdquo Washington Post 14 November 1997 350 NASA ldquoUS Russia Name International Space Station Crewsrdquo news release 97-269 17 November 1997 351 George Lardner Jr and Walter Pincus ldquoMilitary Had Plan To Blame Cuba if Glennrsquos Space Mission Failedrdquo Washington Post 19 November 1997 352 NASA ldquoSolar and Microgravity Research Highlight Final Shuttle Mission of 1997rdquo news release J97037 November 1997 William Harwood ldquoColumbia Corkscrews into Orbitrdquo Washington Post 20 November 1997 Reuters ldquoUS Shuttle Blasts Off with Multinational Crewrdquo 19 November 1997 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Executes Flip on Its Way into Orbitrdquo 16 November 1997

102


Two members of Columbiarsquos crew US astronaut Winston E Scott and Japanese astronaut Takao Doi conducted a spacewalk successfully recapturing the unresponsive Spartan satellite released on 21 November After the 3000-pound (1400-kilogram) satellite had failed to turn toward the Sun Columbiarsquos robotic arm had bumped it away from the Shuttle NASA officials had cancelled the missionrsquos originally planned spacewalk to rescue the US$10 million spacecraft Astronauts Scott and Doi later received a telephone call from President William J Clinton congratulating them on grabbing the satellite353

DECEMBER 1997

1 December The US General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report on the threat of space debris to the planned International Space Station (ISS) According to the report Space Surveillance DOD and NASA Need Consolidated Requirements and a Coordinated Plan NASArsquos surveillance capabilities relying on the US Department of Defense (DOD) network of radar and optical sensors for information about possible collisions had not provided enough information to prevent collisions in space GAO surmised that DOD had focused most of its attention on military objects missing many of the smaller pieces of debris that could have caused significant damage to NASArsquos Shuttles or the ISS GAO recommended that NASA DOD and the CIA collaborate to upgrade the space surveillance system According to estimates more than 110000 pieces of debris most measuring about 05 inches (13 centimeters) in diameter were floating in space With a closing velocity of 35000 miles (56000 kilometers) per hour even such a small object would do significant damage to the ISS when the station was in a prograde orbit GAOrsquos report noted that the fully completed ISS would be 10 times larger than any Shuttle flying in space and that it would be in orbit for at least 10 years increasing the chance of a collision occurring Although they acknowledged the possibility of a collision NASA scientists argued that the odds favored the ISSrsquos avoiding such an occurrence As NASArsquos expert Chief Scientist for Orbital Debris Nicholas L Johnson explained ldquoThe odds are certainly in your favor that nothing will happen at all in those 10 years [of planned space station operation]rdquo354

2 December In a once-in-a-century occurrence eight planets lined up in the sky ldquolike pearls on a stringrdquo from west to east Astronomers could view in one line of sight Pluto followed by Mercury Mars Venus Neptune Uranus Jupiter and Saturn⎯with a crescent Moon visible as well Jack Horkheimer host of public televisionrsquos Star Hustler described the event as ldquonaked-eye astronomy at its bestrdquo a boon for amateurs According to computer calculations the orbits of the planets would not line up in such a pleasing manner for observers on the Earth for at least another century355

353 William Harwood ldquoSatellite Designed To Study Sun Failsrdquo Washington Post 22 November 1997 Associated Press ldquoColumbia Crew Prepares Plan To Recover Spinning Satelliterdquo 24 November 1997 William Harwood ldquoSpace Walkers Grab Satellite Wrestle It Back onto Shuttlerdquo 25 November 1997 Reuters ldquoSpacewalking Astronauts Grab Errant Satelliterdquo 25 November 1997 Associated Press ldquoClinton Calls Shuttle Crew with Thanksrdquo 28 November 1997 354 US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Surveillance DOD and NASA Need Consolidated Requirements and a Coordinated Planrdquo (report no NSIAD 98-42 Washington DC 1 December 1997) Sean Holton ldquoWorries Rise over Junk in Spacerdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 2 December 1997 355 Associated Press ldquoPlanets in Once-in-Century Lineuprdquo 2 December 1997

103


3 December Crew aboard Shuttle Columbia successfully released and operated the Autonomous Extrashyvehicular Robotic Camera Sprint (AERCam Sprint) The 35-pound (16-kilogram) spherical camera propelled itself around the Shuttle after astronaut Winston E Scott had released it during a spacewalk The camera used periodic jet thrusts to maneuver responding to control commands made from inside Columbia The US$3 million camera transmitted images of Columbia and its crew back to Earth providing unique vantage points for observation The astronauts who retrieved the small robotic device without any complications concluded that it would be a helpful technology for future Shuttle missions and the ISS356

8 December The Astronauts Memorial Foundation recognized Major Robert H Lawrence Jr as the first black astronaut in NASA history exactly 30 years after his death during a US Air Force training mission A ceremony adding Lawrencersquos name to the Astronauts Memorial Foundationrsquos Space Mirror at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) ended a long bureaucratic debate over whether Lawrence qualified as an astronaut Lawrence had never met the Air Force requisite that an astronaut must have flown at an altitude of least 50 miles (80 kilometers) above Earth because although he had received his appointment to the US Air Forcersquos Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program he had died before flying in space Therefore the Astronauts Memorial Foundation had repeatedly refused to include his name on the Space Mirror at KSC However in 1996 US Representative Bobby L Rush (D-IL) had persuaded the Air Force to verify Lawrencersquos status as an astronaut Thereafter the Astronauts Memorial Foundationrsquos board of directors voted immediately and unanimously to include Lawrencersquos name on the Space Mirror357

At a meeting of the American Geophysical Union scientists unveiled evidence of another cause besides the Sun of ldquokiller electronsrdquo which travel at high velocity When electrons travel from Jupiterrsquos massive magnetic field their speed approaches the speed of light Showers of high-velocity electrons cause many problems including blackouts on Earth and damage to orbiting satellites and global positioning systems Scientists had previously been unable to determine the source of the electrons causing the damage Presenting the new information on the phenomenon of high-velocity electrons the researchers declared that the ability to forecast ldquospace weatherrdquo including the patterns of high-velocity electrons would become increasingly important during the coming age of the ISS358

9 December US Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Bill Frist (R-TN) sent a harshly worded letter to NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin decrying NASArsquos chronic cost overruns and promising investigative hearings before the Senate Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation Although McCain and Frist both expressed support for NASA and for space exploration in

356 Seth Borenstein ldquoRobot Set for 1st Space Walk in Spacerdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 3 December 1997 Associated Press ldquoFree-Flying Camera Flits High Above Columbia Sends Down Videordquo 3 December 1997 357 Associated Press ldquoCrash Victim Recognized as 1st Black Astronautrdquo 8 December 1997 358 Tim Friend ldquoMystery Solved Jupiter Is Source of Killer Electronsrdquo USA Today 9 December 1997

104


general they wrote that ldquocontinual unabated overruns undermine the public faithrdquo in the space 359program

10 December NASA dedicated a plaque in memory of Ellison S Onizuka celebrating his record of achieving the highest altitude for propeller-driven aircraft Onizuka had been Hawaiirsquos first astronaut and a member of the Shuttle crew aboard Challenger when it exploded in 1986 NASArsquos recognition of Onizukarsquos achievement more than a decade later occurred during the same year that the remotely controlled AeroVironment Pathfinder broke a distance record for unpiloted space travel topping 71000 miles (114000 kilometers) during its 7 July 1997 flight NASA honored Onizuka for his part in ldquoreaching for the heavens and striving for excellencerdquo noting that his achievement had contributed to that of Pathfinder NASA dedicated the plaque honoring Onizuka at the US Navyrsquos Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai where the record-setting Pathfinder plane had set flight on its historic mission360

US Senator D Robert ldquoBobrdquo Graham (D-FL) announced a plan to lease room aboard NASA Space Shuttles and the ISS to private entities to offset the costs of space exploration Graham announced his plan during a news conference at a new Cape Canaveral Florida air station dedicated to commercial launches Congress had banned the use of the Shuttle for commercial purposes after the Challenger accident Some space experts believed that Grahamrsquos plan would take advantage of a strong commercial market for the retrieval of satellites from space Grahamrsquos plan joined a list of other initiatives of the mid-1990s designed to merge government and private space interests to ease costs for the federal government361

16 December The Galileo spacecraft made the closest ever flyby of Jupiterrsquos moon Europa and earned a place in space history by becoming the first spacecraft to orbit an outer planet Galileo came within 124 miles (200 kilometers) of Europa gathering images of what looked liked an icy ocean beneath the moonrsquos frozen crust The prospect of water on the moonrsquos surface excited scientists who had identified Europarsquos climate as unique among the moons and planets of the galaxy The images of the possible ocean seemed to show signs of ldquoslushy materialrdquo pushing up against the surface ice a sign of a heated core The flyby was the first encounter to occur during Galileorsquos two-year extension to its original mission According to press accounts Galileo launched in 1989 had already gathered enough data to force scientists to ldquorewrite textbooksrdquo362

17 December NASA released images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) revealing more clearly than ever the ldquofinal blaze of gloryrdquo of aging Sun-like stars Scientists had long hypothesized that stars gradually dimmed and died out as they cast off a shell of glowing gas However the HST revealed instead that dying stars create in space an intricate series of glowing

359 Sean Holton ldquoSenators Blast NASA for Program Overrunsrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 10 December 1997 360 NASA ldquoNASA Solar-Powered Altitude Record To Be Dedicated to Challenger Astronautrdquo news release N97shy087 3 December 1997 361 Seth Borenstein ldquoGraham Letrsquos Make Money in Spacerdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 11 December 1997 362 NASA ldquoClosest Europa Flyby Marks Start of Galileo Mission lsquoPart IIrsquordquo news release 97-286 16 December 1997 K C Cole ldquoGalileo Takes Close-Ups of Icy Europardquo Los Angeles Times 17 December 1997 Associated Press ldquoGalileo Flies By Europe Sees Indication of Ocean Under Icerdquo 17 December 1997

105


patterns⎯ldquopinwheels lawn sprinkler style jets elegant goblet shapes and even some that look like a rocket enginersquos exhaustrdquo Astronomers speculated that the new images would lead them to reanalyze ldquostellar evolutionrdquo According to Howard E Bond of the Space Telescope Science Institute of Baltimore Maryland the images made old ideas about the death of stars seem simplistic Hubble scientist David S Leckrone of NASA Headquarters referring to the eventual burning out of the Sun went so far as to say ldquoIn a very real way these images show us our own destinyrdquo Scientists believed that the images portrayed a complicated but very organized sequence of events which experts might understand after further study363

Mirrsquos crew had to abandon a German-built robotic camera called the Inspector which Russian space officials had hoped would capture precise images of the holes in the Spektr module made when the a cargo craft crashed into Mir in June 1997 The camera had failed immediately after its launch diverting from its planned course After attempting for several hours to redirect the Inspector the crew made plans to change Mirrsquos orbit to avoid a collision with the unruly robot The malfunctioning Inspector was the latest in the long string of accidents and malfunctions that had forced the three Russian-American crew members aboard Mir to spend nearly as much time on maintenance as on scientific research364

18 December President William J Clinton awarded Congressional Space Medals of Honor to Edward H White II and Roger B Chafee who died in the Apollo 1 fire Clinton presented the medals to members of the menrsquos families in a ceremony in the Oval Office White and Chafee were part of the three-man crew involved in the tragedy which had occurred more than 30 years earlier On 27 January 1967 the Apollo 1 space capsule had caught fire on the launchpad killing the three men on board the spacecraft The third member of the crew Virgil I ldquoGusrdquo Grissom had received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978 The accident had caused NASA to institute aggressive safety procedures placing a premium on the well-being of its astronauts Clinton noted the contributions of the fallen astronauts ldquothough they never got there astronauts Chaffee White and Grissomrsquos footprints are on the moonrdquo Besides Apollo 1rsquos crew only nine other astronauts had received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor365

21 December NASA announced that because of a US$100 million budget shortfall it would lay off 600 workers from its 6000-person workforce including 500 workers from KSC United Space Alliance the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and the Boeing Company which NASA had contracted to take over Shuttle operations planned to solicit volunteers for early retirement

363 NASA ldquoHubble Witnesses the Final Blaze of Glory of Sun-Like Starsrdquo news release 97-287 17 December 1997 Paul Hoversten ldquoHubble Observes Starsrsquo Swan Songsrdquo USA Today 18 December 1997 John Noble Wilford ldquoHubble Takes Gaudy Photos of Dying Starsrdquo New York Times 18 December 1997 Associated Press ldquoHubble Previews Death of Earth in 6 Billion Yearsrdquo 18 December 1997 364 Reuters ldquoMir To Abandon Robot Space Camera After Failurerdquo 17 December 1997 Associated Press ldquoRobot Fails Floats Free Near Mirrdquo 18 December 1997 365 Associated Press ldquoApollo 1 Astronauts Honored 3 Killed in 1967 Fire on Launch Padrdquo 18 December 1997 Associated Press ldquoClinton Gives Congressional Space Medalrdquo 17 December 1997

106


before resorting to ldquopink slipsrdquo To ensure the maintenance of safety standards NASA was to maintain the right of final approval of all personnel decisions366

24 December EarthWatch Inc of Longmont Colorado launched into orbit Early Bird 1 the first private spy satellite The launch which took place in Russia ended government domination of space spying According to EarthWatch Early Bird 1 had the capability to track objects on Earth as small as 10-feet (3-meters) long The company also reported that ldquocustomers were lining up to buy imagesrdquo Customers for Early Bird 1 services included public interest groups planning to track military movement and arms control measures and foreign governments without the resources to launch their own satellites Because Early Bird 1 was an American-produced satellite the US federal government retained the right to switch it off during wartime as well as the right to filter images sold to foreign customers Experts predicted that the security and privacy questions surrounding the first private spy satellite would take years to sort out However they also surmised that Early Bird 1 was only the first in the wave of satellites that private industry would launch during the coming decade367

25 December The Russian Space Agency paid cosmonauts Vasili V Tsibliyev and Alexander I Lazutkin belated bonuses for their six-month Mir mission payments that Russia had withheld until investigators had determined the two menrsquos roles during the troubled mission which included the crash of a robotic cargo craft into Mir S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia) the company that built Mir had blamed Tsibliyev and Lazutkin suggesting that Russia deny the two cosmonauts their salaries However once the Russian government had determined that human error had been only one among many causes of the crash RSC Energiarsquos President Yuri P Semyonov had retracted the companyrsquos demand that Russia punish the cosmonauts and had supported their right to receive payment Tsibliyev received about US$100000 and Lazutkin about US$80000 Both men had expressed dismay at the negative reception they had received upon returning to Earth after the difficult mission368

JANUARY 1998

1 January NASArsquos Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia opened a new Collaborative Engineering Center equipped with virtual reality teleconferencing and cutting-edge technology Using a combination of a joystick and computerized voice commands engineers could control the three-dimensional virtual space station which included a docking Space Shuttle orbiter369

4 January

366 Dan Klepal ldquoNASA Confirms 600 Jobs Will Be Cutrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 21 December 1997 Associated Press ldquoSpace Center Layoffsrdquo 23 December 1997 367 William J Broad ldquoFirst Civilian Spy Satellite Soars into Space Launched in Russia by a US Companyrdquo New York Times 25 December 1997 Reuters ldquo1st Civilian Spy Satellite Launched in Russiardquo 26 December 1997 368 Associated Press ldquoMirrsquos Pay Dayrdquo 25 December 1997 369 Akweli Parker ldquoNASA Reshaping the Way It Worksrdquo Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk VA) 16 January 1998

107


The crew of the Mir space station replaced the malfunctioning computer block which had failed on 2 January and restarted the stationrsquos orientation system This common type of malfunction which had occurred seven times in 1997 did not create life-threatening conditions but it did reduce the power supply to the space station thereby crippling the gyroscope that oriented the stationrsquos solar panels Using the Soyuz escape module engines to control its orientation Mir turned off all nonessential systems to conserve energy until the crew had completed the repair370

Steve Fossettrsquos Solo Spirit balloon carrying NASArsquos prototype Aerobot Science Payload landed prematurely when it experienced equipment problems NASA had been testing the Aerobot Science Payload prototype for use on balloons in outer space to collect information from other planetsrsquo atmospheres On this trip Aerobot returned accurate data on position balloon velocity vertical wind velocity temperature and humidity but experienced problems with a pressure sensor and a satellite communications link371

6 January An Athena II rocket carrying Lunar Prospector launched from the renovated US Navy test-launch site Launch Complex 46 marking the first time that the government-based space transportation agency Spaceport Florida Authority had managed a launch from the complex The rocket carried aboard some of the ashes of geologist Eugene M Shoemaker who had died in a car crash in July 1997 Among his many professional accomplishments the sixty-nine-year-old Shoemaker had selected lunar landing sites and trained Apollo astronauts On 5 January NASA had cancelled Athena IIrsquos first scheduled launch for safety reasons after US Air Force radar necessary to track the rocket failed The unpiloted rocket launched at 928 pm (EST) and after 1 hour propelled the 4-foot (12-meter) 650-pound (291-kilogram) Lunar Prospector out of low-Earth orbit toward the Moon372

8 January Astronomers announced that pictures from a new camera on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) supported the theory that a new planet was forming around Beta Pictoris Images focusing on the disc (the halo of dust and gas rotating around the star) revealed that instead of a smooth flow one quadrant has a large bulge indicating the orbital path of a planet that could be many times larger than Jupiter No actual planet was visible in the images only the effects of its gravitational pull Nevertheless this was the strongest evidence to date in visible light of the presence of a possible planet Beta Pictoris is younger (20 million to 100 million years old compared to the Sunrsquos 45 to 5 billion years) and about eight times brighter than the Sun The formation of planets around a young star suggested that planets form very early in the life of a solar system373

370 Washington Post ldquoMir Crew Replaces Computer Blockrdquo 4 January 1998 Chicago Tribune ldquoNew Year Old WoemdashMir Computer Glitchrdquo 3 January 1998 371 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoBalloon Trip Helps Martian Studiesrdquo 11 January 1998 372 Lynne Bumpus-Hooper ldquoProspector Off on Historic Trip to Moonrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 7 January 1998 Jim Erickson ldquoLate Flagstaff Astronomerrsquos Ashes Are Headed for Moon in Fitting Tributerdquo Arizona Daily Star (Tucson AZ) 7 January 1998 Washington Times ldquoNASA Launches Mission to Moon Seeking Water for Future Settlersrdquo 7 January 1998 373 Washington Post ldquoImages Support Theory of New Planet Hubble Photos Show Bulge in Starrsquos Halo Dustmdash63 Light-Years from Sunrdquo 9 January 1998

108


NASA named current Director of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Joseph H Rothenberg to head its Office of Space Flight which oversees the Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise which includes the Shuttle program and the planned International Space Station (ISS) Rothenberg replaced Wilbur C Trafton who had announced his resignation in November 1997 The Office of Space Flight accounted for about 40 percent of NASArsquos US$136 billion annual budget Rothenberg was the first Director of the Office of Space Flight who had no experience in military aviation the astronaut corps the Space Shuttle or management of the space station program However he had a strong background in engineering and astronomy Rothenberg was closely involved in planning and using the HST and had worked as a space engineer at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) NASA named Alphonso V Diaz to succeed Rothenberg at GSFC374

9 January The two Russian crew members of the Mir space station completed a record-breaking spacewalk Commander Anatoly Y Solovyev and Pavel V Vinogradov dismantled and retrieved in record time the Kristall modulersquos optical-monitoring equipment made by the United States The scheduled 6-hour spacewalk took only 3 hours and 8 minutes However it was unclear whether the cosmonauts had been able to repair a leaky hatch The problem was not with the rubber sealing as Russian ground control had suspected but rather with a malfunctioning lock that was preventing the hatch from sealing hermetically The cosmonauts activated 10 reserve locks and pumped air into the airlock planning to monitor the hatch for leaks over the next 24 hours The spacewalk was Commander Solovyevrsquos 16th in five flights over 10 years He had spent more than 70 hours in free space more than any other person had accrued375

11 January Russian Mission Control monitored Mirrsquos airlock pressure following the repair work of 9 January On Friday 8 January when the crew entered the airlock without spacesuits to retrieve some equipment the repair was holding but the pressure had fallen slightly Russian ground control near Moscow which was analyzing the data planned to decide on Monday whether Mirrsquos Kvant-2 module was safe376

At 715 am (EST) Lunar Prospector executed the first of three engine bursts needed to settle into orbit In a flawlessly executed maneuver Prospector fired its engines for 30 minutes to slow down permitting the Moonrsquos gravity to capture it The small robotic spacecraft was NASArsquos first visitor to the Moon since the astronauts from Apollo 17 had walked on its surface in 1972 The Lunar Prospector project had cost about US$63 million377

12 January

374 Sean Holton ldquoNASA Picks an Outsider To Run Shuttles Space Stationrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 9 January 1998 Washington Post ldquoRothenberg To Head Office of Space Flightrdquo 9 January 1998 NASA ldquoDiaz Named Goddard Space Flight Directorrdquo news release 98-4 8 January 1998 375 Washington Post ldquoMir Commander Walks into Spaceflight Historyrdquo 10 January 1998 Washington Times ldquoCosmonauts Possibly Fix Leaky Hatch Do Spacewalk in Record-Short Timerdquo 10 January 1998 376 Reuters ldquoMirrsquos Airlock Pressure Down a BitmdashRussian Controlrdquo 11 January 1998 377 Washington Times ldquoAfter 25 Years NASA Shoots for the Moonrdquo 12 January 1998 Robyn Suriano ldquoProspector Slides into Lunar Orbitrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 12 January 1998

109


Pressure in Mirrsquos Kvant-2 module had been dropping steadily to about three-quarters of the normal atmospheric pressure of Earth indicating that the hatch was still not closing properly Despite these problems the team delayed further repairs scheduling them to take place after other planned events including a spacewalk scheduled for later in the week the docking with Space Shuttle Endeavour planned for 25 January and the arrival of a Russian-French team on 30 January378

13 January Lunar Prospector settled into its orbit after three flawless engine burns The five scientific instruments (magnetometer electron reflectometer gamma-ray spectrometer neutron spectrometer alpha particle spectrometer and Doppler gravity experiment using an S-band antenna) began transmitting streams of data The neutron spectrometer scanned the lunar surface for evidence of hydrogen the gamma-ray spectrometer determined concentrations of elements such as uranium and iron and the alpha-particle spectrometer searched for indications of volcanic and tectonic activity379

The contractor operating the Space Shuttle program United Space Alliance (USA) announced that it would cut 500 jobs at KSC by 30 January to reduce total workforce by 10 percent The announcement raised concerns in Congress about Shuttle safety380

Florida state leaders began forming a task force to attract Lockheed Martinrsquos VentureStarTM

Reusable Launch Vehicle to the coastrsquos spaceports US Representative David Weldon Jr (RshyFL) confirmed verbal commitments from the Spaceport Florida Authority and from Enterprise Florida to help fund the task force The Florida VentureStarTM Capture Team the proposed name for the task force estimated that they needed between US$200000 and US$1 million to carry out a successful bid for the VentureStarTM business381

15 January American astronaut David A Wolf made his first spacewalk accompanied by veteran spacewalker Anatoly Y Solovyev Commander of the Mir space station Solovyev making his 18th spacewalk set the worldrsquos record for the highest number of spacewalks by one individual382

The spacewalk began 20 minutes later than scheduled because of problems opening locks on the malfunctioning outer hatch The scheduled task had been to assess wear and tear on the exterior of the station using a photoreflectometer designed in the United States David A Wolf worked for 2 hours trying to verify whether the device was working properly but only succeeded in taking readings on the shell of the nine-year-old Kvant-2 module one of the stationrsquos oldest

378 Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 12 January 1998 Reuters ldquoMir Airlock Continues To Leak After Repairrdquo 12 January 1998 379 Reuters ldquoCorrectedmdashUS Space Probe Begins Hunt for Water on the Moonrdquo 14 January 1998 NASA ldquoSolar System Exploration Lunar Prospectorrdquo httpsolarsystemnasagovmissionsprofilecfmMCode=LunarPrampDis play=ReadMore (accessed 30 July 2007) 380 Robyn Suriano ldquo500 KSC Layoffs Jan 30 Expected Budget Shortfall Will Reduce Work Force 10 Percentrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 14 January 1998 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoLatest Round of KSC Layoffs Needs Congressional Scrutinyrdquo 15 January 1998 381 Todd Halvorson ldquoTask Force To Focus on Attracting Lockheed Martinrsquos VentureStar to Staterdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 14 January 1998 382 Seth Borenstein ldquoAmerican Gets Ready for Spacewalk Todayrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 14 January 1998

110


compartments Engineers planned to use the data to help make selections for materials and protective coatings for the new ISS Flight Director Vladimir A Solovyov explained in a news conference at Mission Control outside Moscow ldquothe device proved to be far from mature so it was decided to skip the examination of the core modulerdquo Instead the two men studied the holes in the Spektr module which had suffered punctures during a collision with a cargo craft on 25 June 1997383

16 January Mir Commander Anatoly Y Solovyev celebrated his 50th birthday⎯in space enjoying a ldquosemishyofficiallyrdquo sanctioned one-gulp-per-person dose of cognac and a birthday dinner chosen from the space stationrsquos supplies Solovyev had logged an impressive 80 hours of spacewalking during 17 walks As of this Mir mission Solovyevrsquos fifth the Russian cosmonaut had spent a cumulative total of approximately 20 months on the space station384

NASA officially named US Senator John H Glenn Jr (D-OH) veteran astronaut of the Mercury program as a crew member aboard Space Shuttle Discoveryrsquos Mission STS-95 planned for October 1998 At age 77 Glenn would become the oldest person to fly in orbit In 1962 he had been the first American to orbit Earth NASA described the research planned during Glennrsquos spaceflight a joint effort between NASA and the National Institute of Aging of the National Institutes of Health Scientists intended to supplement peer-reviewed research on sleep disorders muscle atrophy balance and clinical evaluations of blood and heart function with data collected during Discoveryrsquos planned October mission Senator Glenn had undergone medical tests with NASA physicians as well as with independent consultants all of whom had determined that Glenn was medically qualified for spaceflight with an excellent fitness level NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin remarked that Glenn ldquobrings a unique blend of experience to NASA He has flight operational and policy experiencerdquo385

18 January The Russian Space Agency announced that the first module of the ISS was completed and ready to ship to the launchpad Under a contract with Boeing Company Khrunichevrsquos Moscow factory had designed and built this first module to hold cargo The new module was similar to two existing modules in the Mir space station Russia had originally scheduled the module for launch in November 1997 but fell behind in the production of the second unit Despite the delay Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev emphasized the importance of the day during a news conference ldquoThis event symbolizes the fact that Russia was is and shall be a space nation capable of realizing large-scale projects penetrating into spacerdquo The ISS project a joint effort of Russia the United States the European Space Agency (ESA) Canada and Japan was especially significant to Russia since the ISS would replace Mir as the only piloted element of Russiarsquos space program386

383 USA Today ldquoAmerican Looks at Mir from Outsiderdquo 15 January 1998 Oleg Shchedrov for Reuters ldquoHitches Marred Mir Crew Space Walk Says Officialrdquo 15 January 1998 Houston Chronicle ldquoAstronaut Cosmonaut Take Short Spacewalk Excursion Marked by a Few Small Difficultiesrdquo 15 January 1998 384 Associated Press ldquoMir-50-Year-Old Cosmonautrdquo 16 January 1998 385 NASA ldquoSen Glenn Gets a lsquoGorsquo for Space Shuttle Missionrdquo news release 98-8 16 January 1998 386 Associated Press ldquoRussia-Space Stationrdquo 18 January 1998

111


20 January Following a meeting of the Defence Council President Boris N Yeltsin issued a decree giving overall control of Russiarsquos space industry to the civilian Russian Space Agency Yeltsinrsquos intention was ldquoto extract maximum economic benefit from one of the few manufacturing industries in which Russia is a world leaderrdquo With this decree Yeltsin required the government to create a plan for a restructured space industry giving priority to national security to economic and scientific missions and to strengthening Russiarsquos position in the world marketplace387

21 January A NASA Space Shuttle program manager announced that a special safety study would not prevent USA the prime Space Shuttle contractor from cutting up to 10 percent of its workforce at KSC The safety report not yet released called for some changes in the layoff plan but would still permit the private company to cut up to 600 jobs388

NASA modified its contract with Orbital Sciences Corporation in order to produce a second flight vehicle for the X-34 program The modified contract expanded test objectives allowing US$77 million in additional funds for the purchase of hardware and another US$2 million for additional testing and analysis wind tunnel testing and a second leading-edge thermal protection system389

NASA announced the change in name of one of its four strategic enterprises NASArsquos Mission to Planet Earth Strategic Enterprise was renamed Earth Science Enterprise Mission to Planet Earth Strategic Enterprise had originated 10 years ago based on the concept that NASA should observe the Earth in the same way that it studies other planets NASA said that the new name reflected the enterprisersquos reformulated goals NASArsquos Earth Science Enterprise would seek to answer key questions about land-surface cover near-term and long-term climate change natural hazards and atmospheric ozone390

The Russian Space Agency nominated veteran cosmonaut Valery V Ryumin to fly as a mission specialist aboard Discovery during Mission STS-91 in May In his last spaceflight in 1980 Ryumin was a member of the Soyuz 35 Mission During that mission he had spent 185 days in space from April through October Ryumin had spent a total of 362 days in space in the course of his three missions391

22 January Space Shuttle Endeavour Mission STS-89 successfully launched from KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida despite forecasted thunderstorms The crew of STS-89 included Commander Terrence W Wilcutt Pilot Joe F Edwards Jr Payload Commander Bonnie J Dunbar and Mission Specialists Michael P Anderson James F Reilly Salizhan S Sharipov and Andrew S W Thomas who would replace David A Wolf on Mir This was the eighth ShuttlendashMir docking

387 Reuters ldquoRussia Puts Civilian Agency in Charge of Spacerdquo 20 January 1998 388 Seth Borenstein for Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News ldquoKennedy Space Center in Florida To Cut 600 Private-Company Shuttle Jobsrdquo 22 January 1998 389 NASA ldquoNASA Commits to Second Vehicle for X-34 Programrdquo news release 98-11 21 January 1998 390 NASA ldquoMission to Planet Earth Enterprise Name Changed to Earth Sciencerdquo news release 98-12 21 January 1998 391 NASA ldquoVeteran Cosmonaut Nominated To Fly on Final ShuttleMir Missionrdquo news release 21 January 1998

112


but the first for an orbiter other than Atlantis and the first overseen by Launch Director David A King NASA had appointed two new rotational launch directors David A King and Ralph R Roe Jr following the retirement of veteran Launch Director James F Harrington III392

NASA Launch Integration Manager Donald R McMonagle announced that Space Shuttle Columbiarsquos tune-up would take place at the Boeing Companyrsquos facility in Palmdale California rather than at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida NASA Launch Integration and Shuttle operator USA advised Boeing officials ldquoto get ready to map out a plan for Columbiarsquos work in Californiardquo The announcement following the recent notification about significant job cuts was more bad news for KSC officials NASA officials had proposed in 1996 that KSC handle much of the Shuttlersquos maintenance and modification but had decided that the facility was ldquotoo busy with launches to handle [S]huttle renovationrdquo Alan Buis a Boeing representative suggested that because Columbia would be getting ldquoa complicated internal glass cockpit Palmdale is lsquoa logical choicersquordquo393

24 January Shuttle Endeavour docked with Mir at an altitude of 214 nautical miles (2467 miles or 3970 kilometers) bringing the seventh American astronaut to work on board Mir since the program began in 1995 Andrew S W Thomas a mechanical engineer replaced David A Wolf a physician who had been on board Mir since September The hatches opened at 525 pm (EST) and Thomass transfer occurred at 635 pm (EST)394

25 January Astronaut Andrew S W Thomas was unable to fit into his Russian-made emergency spacesuit before boarding Mir but after initial orders that Thomas spend the first night in the Space Shuttle Mission Control granted him permission to board The suit was necessary only in case of emergency evacuation aboard Soyuz Once aboard Mir Thomas altered his spacesuit adjusting and removing some straps in the armpit and torso areas After the alterations the suit fit exactly as it should ensuring that Thomas would not have to return to Earth with Endeavour on Thursday395

During the Shuttlersquos docking at Mir a sensor aboard Endeavour failed requiring Mir to take control of Endeavour Mir was to keep the Shuttle pointed in the right direction until Mission Control could transmit software to fix the sensor396 Crews transferred about half of the 7400 pounds (3356 kilograms) of supplies and equipment aboard the Shuttle to the space station397

392 USA Today ldquoShuttle Liftsrdquo 23 January 1998 Seth Borenstein ldquoWeather May Keep Endeavour on Groundrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 21 January 1998 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-89rdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pages shuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-89html (accessed 11 June 2007) NASA Kennedy Space Center ldquoKSC Launch Director Harrington To Retire Successors Namedrdquo news release 223-97 17 December 1997 httpwww-paokscnasagovkscpaorelease1997223-97htm (accessed 5 August 2008) 393 Seth Borenstein ldquoCalifornia Plant Gets Shuttle Work Againrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 24 January 1998 394 New York Times ldquoShuttle Docks at Space Station with Astronaut and Suppliesrdquo 25 January 1998 NASA ldquoSTSshy89rdquo 395 Steve Marshall ldquoMir Spacesuit Astronaut Prove To Be a Poor Fitrdquo USA Today 26 January 1998 Washington Post ldquoAstronaut Moves into Mir Despite Spacesuit Problemrdquo 26 January 1998 Washington Times ldquoThomas Finally Fits in on Mir Crucial Alterations Made to Space Suitrdquo 27 January 1998 396 Pauline Arrillaga for Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttlerdquo 26 January 1998 397 Brad Liston for Reuters ldquoBalky Suit and Other Problems Fixed on Mirrdquo 26 January 1998

113


26 January A Russian Space Agency official insisted that there had been no problem with Andrew S W Thomasrsquos spacesuit describing the US astronaut as bad tempered and expressing concern about the implications of Thomasrsquos attitude for the remainder of the mission Deputy Flight Commander Viktor Blagov indicated that since major work would take place on Mir ldquoany fuss about the space suit is out of placerdquo Blagov explained that Thomas would keep both David Wolfrsquos spacesuit and his own398

Endeavour lost power to its small forward-maneuvering jets for 30 minutes Because the jets which deliver 25 pounds (11 kilograms) of thrust keep the complex stabilized as it orbits Earth the loss of power left the EndeavourndashMir complex adrift During this malfunction the crew continued its main task to transfer supplies and equipment from the Shuttle to the space station NASA officials explained that the crew had never been in danger However if the Shuttlersquos small maneuvering jets had not regained power Endeavour would have had to rely on its primary jets which deliver 875 pounds (397 kilograms) of thrust Using the primary jets would have risked damage to Mir upon separation of the two spacecraft399

NASA announced the discovery of a fast-spinning pulsar providing evidence of an evolutionary link between strong-field slower-spinning energetic pulsars and weak-field millisecond pulsars Frank Marshall William W Zhang and Eric V Gotthelf of GSFC found the pulsar by examining x-ray emissions that NASArsquos Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer spacecraft had recorded in 1996 Observations of the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics spacecraft a satellite jointly owned by Japan and the United States confirmed the discovery The scientists reported that the pulsar was spinning at a rate of 60 times per second and that it could have been spinning as fast as 150 times per second when it formed 4000 years ago An astrophysicist at the US Department of Energyrsquos Los Alamos National Laboratory remarked ldquothis is the fastest high-energy pulsar of its type we know aboutrdquo The research team reported that the pulsar is ldquolikely associated with the remnant of a supernova (N157B) that exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 4000 years agordquo Comparing the pulsar found in N157B to the high-energy pulsar in the Crab Nebula the scientists reported that the central source of x-ray light from N157B is this fast-spinning pulsar associated with a supernova remnant proving the hypothesis that the weaker the magnetic field the faster the pulsar spins at birth400

27 January Engineers at KSC made corrections to Endeavourrsquos software completely repairing the Shuttlersquos jets overnight After the transmittal of the corrected software to the computers on board the Shuttle the problem was resolved NASA believed that a malfunctioning relay latch an electrical connection on the spacecraft had caused the problem401

398 Reuters ldquoBalky Suitrdquo 399 Brad Liston for Reuters ldquoFaulty Jets Are Fixed and Space Complex Is Stabilizedrdquo New York Times 27 January 1998 400 NASA ldquoFast-Spinning Pulsar Discovery Provides Evolutionary Linkrdquo news release 98-14 26 January 1998 401 Reuters ldquoFaulty Jets Are Fixedrdquo

114


28 January The crew closed the hatches used to transfer equipment between Endeavour and Mir at 534 pm (EST) in preparation for Endeavourrsquos return flight to Earth The closure of the hatches concluded five days of Endeavourrsquos continuous link-up with Mir during which time the astronauts and cosmonauts had transferred 9600 pounds (4350 kilograms) of materials In addition to equipment exchanges the crew exchanged American astronaut David A Wolf for Andrew S W Thomas a US astronaut born in Australia who was to remain aboard Mir for a planned four-and-one-half-month mission402

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a US$423 million contract to Hughes Space and Communications of El Segundo California to manufacture and launch up to four weather-monitoring Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) The basic contract covered the manufacture and launch of two spacecraft Separate fixed-price options for two additional spacecraft would cost US$190 million and US$185 million The spacecraft would carry instruments to provide regular measurements of the Earthrsquos atmosphere cloud cover and land surfaces Two spacecraft would also carry the Solar X-ray Imager and Space Environment Monitor instruments These four spacecraft known as GOES-N -O -P and -Q were to continue enhancing the services of the current GOES-I through -M series a ldquomainstay of modern weather forecastingrdquo The GOES series provided meteorologists and hydrologists with ldquovisible and infrared images of weather systems and precise atmospheric soundingsrdquo The positions of the spacecraft in orbit would allow scientists to monitor storms when they were first forming in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans403

29 January An Atlas rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 137 pm (EST) after NASA had scrubbed the flight three days in a row The Lockheed Martin rocket which carried a classified spacecraft for the Pentagonrsquos National Reconnaissance Office separated from its passenger 1frac12 hours after launching with the satellite successfully placed in orbit The satellite viewing two-thirds of the globe was to circle the Earth in an egg-shaped orbit taking it from 24000 miles (39000 kilometers) above the northern latitudes to just 200 miles (322 kilometers) above Antarctica404

Endeavour separated from Mir to head home at 1157 am (EST) returning David A Wolf to Earth and leaving Andrew S W Thomas at the Mir station for a four-and-one-half-month stay Wolf was returning to Earth aboard Endeavour after completing a 119-day stay on Mir The new crew of Mir two cosmonauts Kazakh Talgat A Musabayev and Russian Nikolai M Budarin and a French astronaut Leacuteopold Eyharts lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Soyuz TM-27 23 minutes before Endeavour undocked from Mir405

402Pauline Arrillaga for Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttlerdquo 30 January 1998 NASA ldquoSTS-89rdquo 403 NASA ldquoHughes Selected To Build Weather Satellitesrdquo contract announcement release C98-B 28 January 1998 404 Robyn Suriano ldquoAtlas Launches on Fourth Try Classified Craft Likely To Serve as Orbital Switchboardrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 30 January 1998 405 New York Times ldquoShuttle Departs Leaving Last American on Mirrdquo 30 January 1998 Paul Hoversten ldquoEndeavour Separates from Mirrdquo USA Today 30 January 1998 NASA ldquoSTS-89rdquo

115


Fourteen nations and space agencies participated in a ceremony signing final accords to build and manage the future ISS Participating countries were Belgium Canada Denmark France Germany Italy Japan the Netherlands Norway Russia Spain Sweden Switzerland the United Kingdom and the United States Acting Secretary of State Strobe Talbott signed on behalf of the United States the 1998 Intergovernmental Agreement on Space Station Cooperation and NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin signed separate bilateral memoranda of understanding with heads of the Russian Space Agency ESA and the Canadian Space Agency The new agreements superseded previous agreements concerning the ISS which Canada Europe Japan and the United States had signed in 1988406

30 January Raytheon Systems Companyrsquos training unit formerly known as Hughes Training appointed former astronaut Henry W Hartsfield Jr as Managing Director for the companyrsquos NASA support business In this position Hartsfield was to manage the development of simulators for the ISS program407

31 January Just hours before Endeavour touched down in Florida a new crew from Russia docked at Mir to begin a three-week transition from Mir 24 to Mir 25 Mir 25 Commander Talgat A Musabayev replaced Anatoly Y Solovyev Flight Engineer Nikolai M Budarin replaced Pavel V Vinogradov and Researcher Leacuteopold Eyharts a 40-year old French air force pilot on his first spaceflight joined the crew408

The US Air Force Space and Missile Museum in Cape Canaveral Florida celebrated the 40th

anniversary of the successful launch of the modified Redstone rocket which had carried into orbit Explorer I the United Statesrsquo first satellite The launch occurred four months after the Soviet Union had placed Sputnik I in orbit In addition to achieving orbit the 31-pound (14shykilogram) Explorer I had discovered the Van Allen Radiation Belt The museum at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station held an open house and a space fair and launched a model rocket to celebrate the anniversary of this milestone and to educate the public about the United Statesrsquo 40 years in space409

FEBRUARY 1998

1 February One thousand Puerto Ricans protested against NASArsquos plans to launch from a nature preserve in Puerto Rico suborbital rockets filled with chemicals The Coqui Dos program planned the launch to measure high-level winds and turbulence in the upper atmosphere Coqui Dos continued the El Coqui program of 1992 part of NASArsquos Suborbital Sounding Rocket program which launched 25 sounding rockets annually from locations worldwide Because the rockets

406 New York Times ldquoSpace Station Accord Signedrdquo 30 January 1998 Associated Press ldquoAgreements Signed for Launching of Space Stationrdquo 29 January 1998 NASA ldquoSpace Station Agreements To Be Signed in Washingtonrdquo news release 98-17 29 January 1998 407 David Welch for Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News ldquoRaytheon Systems Names Chief of NASA Dealsrdquo 30 January 1998 408 NASA ldquoSTS-89rdquo Washington Post ldquo2 Russians Frenchman Blast Off for Mirrdquo 30 January 1998 409 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoExplorer 1 Anniversary Event Will Bring History to Liferdquo 31 January 1998

116


would disperse aluminum trimethol before crashing into the sea the protesters demanded that NASA produce studies proving that the launch would not damage the environment The mayor of Vega Baja led the protest outside the entrance to the Tortuguero Recreation Area the section of the nature preserve where the rocket launches would take place threatening to sue NASA to force it to release environmental impact studies from the 1992 launch410

2 February Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced that NASA planned to reserve an additional US$750 million of federal funds over the next two years enabling Lockheed Martin to continue work on a replacement vehicle for the Space Shuttle Lockheed Martin and NASA had signed an agreement in 1996 to develop the X-33 suborbital test craft At that time the federal government had pledged to dedicate US$900 million to develop the craft and fund 15 suborbital test flights beginning in the spring of 1999 Goldin explained that if the test program exceeded the original ceiling of US$900 million the US$750 million funding pool would be available beginning in the year 2000 to develop the X-33 replacement vehicle411

NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced the selection of Ghassem R Asrar as the new Associate Administrator for Earth Science Enterprise Before this appointment Asrar had served as Chief Scientist for the Earth Observing System in the Office of Earth Science Enterprise at NASA Headquarters He led an international team in developing scientific priorities and measurements ldquoto be obtained from a series of advanced Earth-orbiting satellites that promise fundamental new insights into the connections between Earthrsquos land oceans atmosphere ice and liferdquo412

4 February A West European Ariane 4LP rocket blasted off from French Guiana carrying two communications satellites Brasilsat-3 and Inmarsat-3 Twenty-one minutes after takeoff the first satellite belonging to Brazil separated from the rocket Five minutes later the second satellite a 2-ton (1800-kilogram or 18-tonne) worldwide mobile communications satellite separated from the rocket The launch successfully placed both satellites in orbit413

6 February Shuttle operator United Space Alliance (USA) cut 363 jobs at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) one of the largest cutbacks in decades Combining the layoffs with 194 voluntary resignations USA eliminated 557 jobs at KSC In implementing the cutbacks the company hoped to ldquotrim $100 million from the current [S]huttle budgetrdquo thereby reducing costs improving efficiency and attracting new payload customers without compromising safety414

10 February

410 NASA ldquoNASA Studying Space Weather from Puerto Ricordquo news release 98-23 6 February 1998 Mario Maldonado for Associated Press ldquoPuerto Rico-NASArdquo 1 February 1998 Lance Oliver ldquo11 Launches Will Attract Protesters Many in Puerto Rico Fear Damage by Research Rocketsrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 2 February 1998 411 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International More NASA Money for Shuttle Replacementrdquo 3 February 1998 412 NASA ldquoAsrar Named Associate Administrator for Earth Sciencerdquo news release 98-19 2 February 1998 413 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoEuropean Ariane Rocket Puts 2 Satellites into Orbitrdquo 5 February 1998 414 Richard Burnett and Seth Borenstein ldquo363 Lose Jobs at Space Centerrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 7 February 1998

117


At a news conference at NASA in Washington DC Robert P Kirshner astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and other astronomers discussed new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images showing a ldquoshock wave lighting a knot of gas some 100 billion miles [161 billion kilometers] widerdquo In 1987 when a telescope in Chile detected the first light of an exploding star the supernova designated SN1987A astronomers had observed a glowing ring of gas around the remnant of the star Although the gas ring had cooled and faded the new HST images showed the shock wave of energy colliding with and lighting up the edges of the ring The astronomers had been studying the images closely to learn more about how stars evolve and become supernovas Anne L Kinney of the Space Telescope Science Institute explained that studying stellar evolution and the inner workings of supernovas is important because the explosions that create supernovas ldquofertilize the galaxiesrdquo with the enriched material of heavy elements415

The National Research Council released a report entitled ldquoSpace Technology for the New Centuryrdquo finalizing two years of independent study by an expert panel conducted at the request of NASA The reportrsquos key finding stated that because of its ldquofaster better cheaperrdquo short-term goals NASA ldquomay be neglecting key technologies needed for longer-term advances in spacerdquo The panel identified six technologies that NASA ought to ldquospur with annual investments of $3 million to $5 million eachrdquo The technologies all with broad-based applications include 1) high-volume planet-to-planet video and data communications based on laser technologies instead of radio frequencies 2) precisely controlled space structures (space telescopes with more sophisticated and sensitive steering and pointing) 3) micro-machines 4) safer and more efficient nuclear power systems 5) radiation-resistant computers and electronics and 6) advanced space mining and manufacturing technologies416

11 February The Commercial Aviation Safety Strategy Team (CASST) announced a campaign to focus attention on ldquothe most pressing aviation safety problemsrdquo CASST was composed of the Air Transport Association Boeing Company Airbus Industrie the Air Line Pilots Association and the Aerospace Industries Association as well as major jet engine manufacturers General Electric Company Pratt amp Whitney of United Technologies Corporation and Rolls-Royce CASST identified the top safety issues needing improvement worldwide including controlled-flight-intoshyterrain accidents engine failures runway incursions and maintenance errors CASST recommended working to reduce these safety hazards as well as implementing technologies to detect in-flight turbulence417

12 February Elizabeth H Moore Head of the Art and Archaeology Department of the School of Oriental and African Studies the University of London and Anthony Freeman a radar scientist at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) discussed new radar imagery of Angkor Cambodia during a

415 NASA ldquoShock Wave Sheds New Light on Fading Supernovardquo news release 10 February 1998 John Noble Wilford ldquoRing of Fire Could Hold Clues to Events Leading to Supernovardquo New York Times 11 February 1998 Associated Press ldquoBright Exploding Star of 1987 Readies a Reprise of Fireworksrdquo Washington Post 11 February 1998 416 Sean Holton ldquoReport NASA Should Work More on New Technologyrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 11 February 1998 417 Tim Dobbyn for Reuters ldquoAviation Industry Unveils Safety Prioritiesrdquo 11 February 1998

118


press briefing at JPL The researchers announced that the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) developed by JPL to produce radar maps had helped them to detect and locate a distribution of prehistoric mounds and undocumented temples to the northwest of Angkor The three-dimensional maps created using radar interferometry revealed evidence of temples and earlier civilization that were absent or incorrectly marked on modern topographic maps and early twentieth-century archaeological reports These discoveries brought into question long-standing ideas about the urban evolution of Angkor The 1996 AIRSAR Pacific Rim Deployment on board a NASA DC-8 jet was a follow-up to a 1994 study of Angkor that used Spaceborne Imaging Radar-CX-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-CX-SAR) on board Space Shuttle Endeavour during Mission STS-59 producing the radar images used to create the three-dimensional maps Unlike SIR-CX-SAR AIRSAR had P-band with a longer wavelength able to penetrate the forest canopy AIRSAR also flew in a mode that allowed it to measure topography and create three-dimensional images of the surface418

As part of the Small Business Innovation Research Program NASA officials chose more than 300 research proposals to share US$23 million in funding Out of 28 award categories 21 focused on space-based applications such as achieving routine space travel exploring and settling the solar system and developing new technologies in astrobiology The range of topics indicated that research associated with high-profile space transportation and exploration efforts curtailed because of cuts in NASArsquos 1999 budget would continue on a smaller scale419

The Voyager 1 spacecraft became the most distant human-made object in space at 65 billion miles (11 billion kilometers) from Earth At 210 pm (PST) the Voyager 1 spacecraft surpassed the distance of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft which was traveling in the opposite direction Voyagerrsquos signal took 95 hours to reach Earth The spacecraft had to rely on radioisotope thermal electric generators because at the far edge of the solar system very little solar power was able to reach itmdashat that distance the Sun is only 15000th as bright as it is on Earth Edward C Stone a Voyager scientist and Director of NASArsquos JPL remarked ldquothe fact that the spacecraft is still returning data is a remarkable technical achievementrdquo NASA had launched Voyager 1 from Cape Canaveral Florida on 5 September 1977420

Wesley T Huntress Jr announced that he would resign from NASA in the near future As NASArsquos Associate Administrator for Space Science Huntress had been responsible for programs in astrophysics planetary exploration and space physics NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin credited him with the revitalization of NASArsquos Space Science Enterprise in particular with overseeing critical components of the program such as the HST and Mars Pathfinder Huntress had joined NASArsquos JPL in the 1960s a research scientist specializing in ion chemistry and planetary atmospheres and NASA had appointed Huntress to head the Office of Space Science in March 1993 In his retirement announcement Huntress stated ldquoI have served in this position for more than five years now and it is simply time to move onrdquo421

418 NASA ldquoNew Insights into Ancient Angkor by NASA Radar To Be Subject of Press Briefingrdquo news release N98-11 5 February 1998 NASA ldquoNASA Radar Reveals Hidden Remains at Ancient Angkorrdquo news release 98-28 12 February 1998 Jane E Allen for Associated Press ldquoUnseen Angkorrdquo 12 February 1998 419 Anne Eisele ldquoSmall Business Grants Span Range of NASA Goalsrdquo Space News 23 Februaryndash1 March 1998 420 NASA ldquoVoyager 1 Now Most Distant Human-Made Object in Spacerdquo news release 98-30 13 February 1998 Los Angeles Times ldquoVoyager 1 Becomes Mankindrsquos Farthest Object from Earthrdquo 18 February 1998 421 NASA ldquoHuntress Announces His Departure from NASArdquo news release 98-31 18 February 1998

119


19 February The Soyuz landing capsule carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a French astronaut returning from Mir landed safely in the snow and bitter cold (-22degF or -30degC) about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the northern Kazakhstan village of Arkalyk Only one of eight rescue helicopters was able to meet the crew because of wind clouds and thick snow limiting visibility to less than 160 feet (49 meters) Anatoly Y Solovyev and Pavel V Vinogradov returned to Earth after a six-month mission on Mir During their stay on Mir the cosmonauts had focused on repairing the aging space station Leacuteopold Eyharts returned to Earth with six salamanders The two cosmonauts who had replaced Solovyev and Vinogradov had flown the salamanders to Mir carrying them on board the space station in January While in space Eyharts had conducted experiments on the salamanders including monitoring the effects of antigravity on the reptilesrsquo egg-laying capabilities422

20 February This date marked Mirrsquos 12th birthday Russian Space Agency cosmonauts Kazakh Talgat A Musabayev and Russian Nikolai M Budarin and US astronaut Australian-born Andrew S W Thomas took a 45-minute trip outside the space station moving the escape capsule to the other side of Mir to make space for the next cargo craft to dock Ground controllers briefly lost contact with the crew when Mir lost its connection to a communications satellite For the first time Thomas wore the Russian-made spacesuit that had been too small when he first arrived at the space station423

21 February After two delays one because of mechanical problems the other because of strong winds a Japanese H-2 rocket blasted off from Tanegashima Space Center carrying a US$370 million communications satellite intended to conduct a three-year series of communications and broadcast tests However an engine breakdown prevented the satellite from entering a geostationary orbit instead the launch left the satellite floating in space useless for its intended mission Engineers were looking for ways to rescue the mission424

The Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame inducted into its roll of honors James B Odom an engineer at NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) who had served NASA for 33 years in the International Space Station Space Shuttle and HST programs The Hall of Fame also honored Marshallrsquos X-ray Calibration Facility which had tested and calibrated x-ray telescopes since the 1970s MSFCrsquos X-ray Calibration Facility supported the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility in achieving a resolving power 10 times greater than any previous x-ray telescope425

24 February

422 Shavkat Rakhmatullayev for Reuters ldquoFocus Russia-France Space Crew Returns to Deep Coldrdquo 20 February 1998 423 Associated Press ldquoBRFmdashMirrdquo 20 February 1998 Adam Tanner for Reuters ldquoFocus Mir Marks 12th Birthday with Brief Excursionrdquo 20 February 1998 424 Mari Yamaguchi for Associated Press ldquoJapan-Satelliterdquo 21 February 1998 425 Huntsville Times (AL) ldquoMSFC Facility Ex-official To Be Laudedrdquo 21 February 1998

120


A US$35000 study commissioned by the Florida Space Business Roundtable revealed that commercial satellite companies did not favor Cape Canaveral as a launch site The Florida Space Business Roundtable presented its findings at the Florida Space Launch Symposium in Melbourne Florida In the survey executives from satellite manufacturing companies rated spaceports evaluating them in 11 categories such as their launch base facilities flight scheduling governmental red tape and on-site technical services The executivesrsquo favorite launch site was Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California and they selected Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China as the worst place to launch Floridarsquos spaceports did well in two categories but business executives considered red tape at those facilities a problem426

25 February NASA partially cancelled the Clark satellite program keeping only the US$13 million launch vehicle service portion of the contract with Lockheed Martin As reasons for the cancellation NASA cited cost overruns an uncertain launch schedule and questions concerning the effectiveness of Clarkrsquos instruments in orbit because its primary instrument had been ldquositting on the ground two years longer than plannedrdquo The intended mission of the program was to take black-and-white stereo images showing detail as small as 10 feet (3 meters) across for NASArsquos Office of Earth Science Enterprise (formerly the Office of Mission to Planet Earth) as well as for commercial customers NASA had paired the Clark satellite with the Lewis satellite However after its August 1997 launch the Lewis satellite had gone into a spin which controllers were unable to repair Consequently the Lewis satellite plunged into the atmosphere where it burned up427

26 February A valve in an air purifier on Mir overheated spreading smoke aboard the station Although the incident caused elevated carbon monoxide the levels continued to drop steadily The crew was not in danger but the incident was a reminder of the terrifying fire that had occurred last year when an oxygen generator burned for 14 minutes filling Mir with smoke and nearly causing the crew to abandon the station428

MARCH 1998

3 March Russian space officials cancelled a spacewalk after cosmonauts broke three wrenches on the last of 10 locks while trying to open a hatch The cosmonauts had intended to repair a damaged solar panel NASA rescheduled the spacewalk for April The incident further increased concerns about the safety of Mir429

5 March

426 Todd Halvorson ldquoSurvey Brevard Launch Sites Fail To Measure UpmdashSpace Coast Falls Short for Commercial Liftoffsrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 25 February 1998 427 NASA ldquoNASA Terminates Clark Earth Science Missionrdquo news release 25 February 1998 Justin Ray ldquoNASA Cans Clark an Imaging Satelliterdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 26 February 1998 428 Associated Press ldquoBRFmdashSmoke on Mirrdquo 27 February 1998 429 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 3 March 1998

121


At a news conference at Ames Research Center (ARC) NASA scientists announced that the Lunar Prospector spacecraft had found ldquoevidence of ice crystals sprinkled throughout the Moonrsquos shadowy north and south polesrdquo Alan B Binder a Lunar Prospector scientist stated that the team believed they had detected anywhere from 10 million to several 100 million tons of water over areas of 3600 to 18000 square miles (9300 to 47000 square kilometers) at the northern pole and 1800 to 7200 square miles (4700 to 19000 square kilometers) at the southern pole However the ice detected using a neutron spectrometer that scans the lunar surface for signs of hydrogen was not in the form of ice sheets but ldquopresent in small crystals mixed in with the moonrsquos rocky soil scattered across thousands of square miles in lunar polar regionsrdquo Although evidence of ice was quite strong the water signal was relatively weak Because the Moon is very dry scientists theorized that comets or asteroids colliding with the Moonrsquos surface had carried the ice to the Moon430

NASA named astronaut Eileen M Collins to command Space Shuttle Columbia on the upcoming Mission STS-93 in December 2008 Collins was the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission NASA had selected her as an astronaut candidate in 1990 and she had become an astronaut in July 1991 She flew her first mission aboard Shuttle Discovery in February 1995 On that mission Discovery came within 30 feet (9 meters) of Mir during a practice run for docking with the space station Collins was also the first woman ever to pilot a Space Shuttle flying Shuttle Atlantis in May 1997 to deliver British-born US astronaut C Michael Foale to Mir and to return astronaut Jerry M Linenger to Earth431

Russian cosmonauts aboard Mir located a lost wrench among 12 yearsrsquo worth of accumulated spare parts They used the wrench to loosen the bolt that had broken three wrenches earlier in the week preventing the two cosmonauts from undertaking a planned spacewalk432

10 March NASA officially declared Mars Pathfinder ldquodeadrdquo six months after its mission ended after getting no response to one last set of commands Pathfinderrsquos mission had ended on 27 September 1997 when NASA lost communication with the craft Pathfinder and its rover Sojourner had landed on Mars on 4 July 1997 and NASA had expected the two craft to ldquoliverdquo on Mars for only 30 days However Pathfinder had exceeded its mission by eight weeks and Sojourner had roamed the Martian terrain 10 weeks longer than the originally planned one-week operation433

12 March The X-38 atmospheric vehicle completed its first unpiloted test flight successfully Project Manager John F Muratore commented that the successful test was ldquothe culmination of two years of hard work by a team from the Johnson Space Center and the Dryden Flight Research Centerrdquo

430 NASA ldquoLunar Prospector Finds Evidence of Ice at Moonrsquos Polesrdquo news release 98-38 5 March 1998 Ruth Larson ldquoProbe Finds Signs of Water on Moon Prospect of Ice in Soil at Poles Tantalizes NASArdquo Washington Times 6 March 1998 Kathy Sawyer ldquoSpacecraft Finds Solid Evidence of Water at Moonrsquos Polesrdquo Washington Post 6 March 1998 431 NASA ldquoCollins Named First Female Shuttle Commanderrdquo news release 98-37 5 March 1998 Reuters ldquoWoman Air Force Officer To Command Shuttle CNNrdquo 4 March 1998 432 Reuters ldquoMir Cosmonauts Solve Mystery of Missing Wrenchrdquo 5 March 1998 433 Dan Whitcomb for Reuters ldquoScientists Declare Pathfinder Officially lsquoDeadrsquordquo 10 March 1998

122


NASA had created the X-38 which could hold up to seven passengers as an escape vehicle for the International Space Station (ISS) Described as a ldquowhale-shaped wingless vehicle with fins that look as if they were inspired by a 1956 Cadillacrdquo the X-38 was the first new spacecraft in more than 20 years to reach the flight-testing stage Engineers had designed a fully automated craft ldquoso that even badly injured crew members could climb in [the vehicle would] separate from the station and the vehicle would then serve as an ambulance using satellite-based navigation aidsrdquo to carry passengers directly back to a designated landing field on Earth434

NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin publicly acknowledged for the first time that the ISS would cost more than originally proposed with a revised cost of US$213 billion and would take longer to assemble than was initially planned with a revised completion date of December 2003 Since 1993 NASA had consistently reported that the cost of the ISS would be US$174 billion and had targeted a 2002 completion date The revised cost was 200 percent more than the original US$8 billion estimate in President Ronald Reaganrsquos 1984 proposal435

13 March New data from NASArsquos Mars Global Surveyor Mission provided insights into the planetrsquos deeply layered terrain its strong localized magnetic fields and the genesis and evolution of a Martian dust storm Scientists analyzed data collected in October and November 1997 publishing the first set of formal results in the 13 March 1998 issue of Science Mars Global Surveyor had used a variety of instruments to collect data The thermal emission spectrometer had mapped the temperature and opacity of the Martian atmosphere during the sandstorm and a camera had returned visual images of the stormrsquos effects The spectrometer had also obtained some infrared emission spectra of Marsrsquos surface indicating ldquothe presence of pyroxene and plagioclase minerals which are common in volcanic rocks with a variable amount of dust componentrdquo Surveyorrsquos magnetometer and electron reflectometer had measured strong localized magnetic fields on Mars A laser altimeter had collected data from Marsrsquos northern hemisphere revealing a flat surface becoming increasingly rough toward the equator Scientists had interpreted a variety of landforms in the Mars images including the northern polar cap and gigantic canyons ridges craters and shield volcanoes436

14 March Progress M-38 launched on a Soyuz-V rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying a 900-kilogram (2000-pound) propulsion unit Mirrsquos crew planned to attach the unit to the Quantum module of the space station The cargo craft also carried 1500 kilograms (3300 pounds) of repair tools replacement parts food and water437

Minnie the last living astro-chimp died of old age at forty-one-years-old Minnie had lived out her retirement at Holloman Air Force Base under the care of the Coulston Foundation Minnie an understudy for chimps Ham and Enos was the only female chimpanzee to train for the

434 NASA ldquoX-38 Atmospheric Vehicle Completes First Unpiloted Flight Testrdquo news release 98-44 12 March 1998 David Colker ldquoEmergency Space Vehicle Model Takes To Test Flightrdquo Los Angeles Times 13 March 1998 435 Larry Wheeler ldquoStation Cost Overrun Now Pegged at $6 Billionrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 24 March 1998 436 NASA ldquoNew Global Surveyor Data Reveals Deeply Layered Terrain Magnetic Features and Genesis of a Martian Dust Stormrdquo news release 98-45 13 March 1998 437 Spacewarn Bulletin no 533 1 April 1998 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx533html (accessed 20 October 2008)

123


Mercury Project in the early 1960s but she had never flown in space Ham had become the first chimpanzee in space when he had made a 15-minute suborbital flight in 1961 before Alan B Shepard Jrrsquos flight that May Enosrsquos orbital flight had been a precursor to John H Glenn Jrrsquos flight in February 1962438

17 March At the request of the United States Israeli officials arrested Ehud Tenenbaum the eighteen-yearshyold computer hacker who called himself The Analyzer along with two other Israeli teenagers Tenenbaum was ringleader of a group called Israeli Internet Underground Prosecutors accused the teenage hackers of breaking into US government and military computer systems including NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as well as into Israeli government computers and commercial and educational computer systems in the United States The FBI said that all three had admitted their involvement stating that they had worked in tandem with two juveniles in Cloverdale California439

A Progress cargo spacecraft delivering supplies to Mir veered off course while in automatic mode forcing the space stationrsquos crew to perform a manual docking Mission Control ordered Commander Talgat A Musabayev to perform the docking when the two craft were only 65 feet (20 meters) apart Musabayev steered the cargo craft smoothly and avoided repeating last Junersquos collision440

Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev responded to US criticism of Russian delays in constructing components of the ISS ldquoNASA [is] trying to lsquoconcentrate attention entirely on Russiarsquos difficultiesrsquo even though [NASA is] lsquothree months behindrsquo in constructing a laboratory modulerdquo Koptev stated that the Russian Space Agency had only received one-fifth of the US$100 million President Boris N Yeltsin had allocated for construction of the service module leading to a seven-month delay in the program In an effort to improve the Russian Space Agencyrsquos financial situation Vice President Albert A Gore Jr and Prime Minister Viktor S Chernomyrdin discussed the possibility of Russiarsquos launching more foreign commercial satellites with the condition that Russia would ldquokeep its promise to stop assisting Iranrsquos weapons programrdquo441

18 March NASA announced the arrest of ldquothe suspected leader of a group of computer hackers who broke into the network of a NASA laboratoryrdquo Law enforcement agents accused twenty-year-old Calldan Levi Coffman of Carson Washington suspected leader of a group called ViRii of infiltrating the networks of various corporations universities and other government agencies in addition to breaching the security of computer systems at NASArsquos JPL last June NASArsquos Computer Crimes Division had worked with other government agencies including the US Naval Intelligence Service the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the FBI to

438 Los Angeles Times ldquoMinnie Last of the Early US Space Program lsquoAstro-Chimpsrsquo Dies at 41rdquo 28 March 1998 439 Mike Billington for United Press International ldquoHacker lsquoConfederacyrsquo Hits Pentagonrdquo 20 March 1998 Michael J Sniffen for Associated Press ldquoUS-Israel-Analyzerrdquo 20 March 1998 Washington Post ldquoFive Teens Suspected of Hacking into Pentagon Computersrdquo 20 March 1998 440 Reuters ldquoFocus Technical Failure Mars Russian Space Dockingrdquo 17 March 1998 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 17 March 1998 441 Houston Chronicle ldquoRussian Official Blames NASA for Delaying Space Stationrdquo 18 March 1998

124


uncover a link between Coffmanrsquos group and Israeli hacker Ehud Tenenbaum known as The Analyzer Law enforcement officials suspected Tenenbaum of organizing a confederation of hacker groups including his own group and Coffmanrsquos group442

19 March NASArsquos Office of Earth Science Enterprise selected the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC and the University of Coloradorsquos Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics to conduct ldquoparallel six-month definition studies of a new small satellite to monitor variations in the amount of radiant solar energy that reaches Earthrdquo as part of the preparations for the Total Solar Irradiance Mission443

NASA officials appeared before a hearing of the US House Committee on Science and Technology to explain the increasing price tag of the ISS The anticipated cost of the ISS had increased to US$4 billion more than originally projected drawing ire from supporters and opponents alike NASArsquos new Associate Administrator for Space Flight Joseph H Rothenberg led the lawmakers through the reasons for the increasing budget explaining the series of revised out-year estimates He attributed part of the problem to cost overruns related to ldquorecurring schedule and budget problems with the Russian [S]pace [A]gencyrdquo and part to the fact that NASArsquos primary contractor the Boeing Company was already US$600 million to US$817 million over budget However Rothenberg stated ldquoonly a fraction of these revised out-year estimates are tied to actual overrunsrdquo444

At a NASA Advisory Council meeting at Marshall Space Flight Center Jay Chabrow an aerospace industry consultant presented findings of a study conducted to determine the true costs of assembling and maintaining the future ISS US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and other concerned lawmakers had tasked Chabrow and his seven-member team of private and government analysts with undertaking this investigation conducted over five months The analystsrsquo findings showed that the ISS could cost as much as US$6 billion more than NASA officials had estimated reaching a total of US$24 billion and that the outpost likely would not be ready to house a full crew until 2006 The report also provided estimates regarding the total cost of the space station over its entire lifetime The analysts projected that Space Shuttle missions to assemble the station resupply flights and staff operating the Shuttle from the ground would cost NASA US$94 billion The study also found that planned caps on congressional spending were unrealistic and that NASA and Boeing officials had been overly optimistic in their cost and schedule estimates Factors driving costs higher included Russian nonperformance software development and integration construction of a crew return vehicle and Boeing cost overruns The report did not account for further cost increases in the event of a total Russian pullout445

20 March

442 Associated Press ldquoNASA Hackerrdquo 18 March 1998 Billington for United Press International ldquoHacker lsquoConfederacyrsquordquo 20 March 1998 443 NASA ldquoTwo Studies Will Refine and Expand Solar Monitoring Taskrdquo news release 98-47 19 March 1998 444 Brett Davis ldquoSpace Station Costs Irk Congressrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 20 March 1998 Tamara Lytle ldquoUS Legislators Criticize Increasing Cost of NASArsquos Space Stationrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 20 March 1998 445 Wheeler ldquoStation Cost Overrunrdquo

125


Boeing Company announced plans to cut an additional 8200 jobs by the end of the year 2000 to streamline facilities to focus on manufacturing and assembly operations and to eliminate redundant laboratories The job cuts affecting work sites in Arkansas California and Texas included planned product phaseouts of the MD-80 and MD-90 and brought into question the future of the MD-11 As it shut down selected facilities including an electronic manufacturing facility and the Site 9 modification center Boeing planned to transfer thousands of employees involved with aircraft and missile systems reusable-space-systems support and satellites446

22 March NASA marked its second full year of ldquocontinuous human presence in Earth orbitrdquo aboard Russiarsquos Mir space station Shuttle Atlantis had launched on 22 March 1996 with US astronaut Shannon W Lucid aboard Lucid then spent 188 days in space an American record She was the second NASA astronaut to live aboard Mir Following her tenure an unbroken succession of astronauts John E Blaha Jerry M Linenger C Michael Foale David A Wolf and Andrew S W Thomas had spent time on Mir Norman E Thagard the first American astronaut to live on Mir had arrived in March 1995 spending 115 days on Mir before Lucidrsquos stay Nine months separated Thagardrsquos mission and Lucidrsquos Frank L Culbertson Jr head of NASArsquos cooperative human spaceflight program with Russia commented ldquoan unbroken presence has been extremely valuable to our having an awareness of what it takes to fly a space station to maintain an outpost on the frontierrdquo447

25 March The Boeing Company appointed Michael T Kennedy to a newly created position Vice President for the Boeing Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle and Delta IV Programs Since 1996 Kennedy had been Vice President of Delta III and had shown ldquohis ability to manage launch vehicle development effectively by bringing Delta III on line for its first launch this summerrdquo As Kennedy moved into his new position Boeing promoted Daniel J Collins to Program Director for Delta III and Jay L Witzling became Vice President of Delta II and Titan Programs Kennedy had joined Boeing in 1970 working on the Skylab Saturn SIVB Titan Delta SPACEHAB and ISS programs448

26 March An international team of researchers announced that observations of US satellites orbiting Earth had proven one of physicist Albert Einsteinrsquos theories correct In his general theory of relativity Einstein had predicted that a spinning body could curve space because the ldquospin of a body must change the geometry of the universe by generating space-time curvaturerdquo Einstein had called the phenomenon frame dragging but scientists came to refer to it as the Lense-Thirring effect naming it for two Austrian physicists who wrote that rotating celestial bodies such as the Sun ldquocreate a force that pulls space toward themrdquo Ignazio Ciufolini a physicist at Sapienza University of Rome and his colleagues used lasers to measure changes in the orbits of the Laser Geodynamics Satellite I or LAGEOS a NASA spacecraft and LAGEOS II a satellite belonging to NASA and the Italian Space Agency The research team observed changes that they could not

446 United Press International ldquoBoeing Cuts 8200 Jobsrdquo 20 March 1998 447 Mark Carreau ldquoNASA Marks Second Year in Orbit Continuous Human Presence in Space Accomplished Aboard Mirrdquo Houston Chronicle 21 March 1998 448 PR Newswire ldquoBoeing Selects Vice President for EELVDelta IV Programrdquo 26 March 1998

126


account for by the laws of gravity or tidal forces concluding that the Lense-Thirring effect exists The satellites launched in 1976 and 1992 were passive satellites dedicated exclusively to laser ranging In this process scientists had send laser pulses to the satellite from ranging stations on Earth measuring the round-trip travel time of the pulses The research team had analyzed data collected over a four-year period beginning in 1993449

27 March NASA awarded a contract worth US$148 million to Raytheon STX Corporation The five-year award included a one-year base period followed by four one-year options Contract services for providing federal information processing services at NASArsquos ARC included software development and maintenance engineering operations and maintenance network services analysis quality assurance and reviews450

Francersquos Aeacuterospatiale British Aerospace Germanyrsquos Daimler-Benz Aerospace and Spainrsquos CASA partners in the Airbus Industrie airplane-manufacturing consortium announced their intention to merge into a ldquounified civilian and military aerospace conglomerate that would compete in the world market with US aerospace giants Lockheed Martin Corp[oration] and Boeing Co[mpany]rdquo The partners provided no details regarding how the merger would take place but the public statement represented ldquoanother move toward a unified European aerospace industryrdquo an idea that had been elusive ldquobecause of the competing national interests of the various countriesrdquo451

30 March Astronomers at the University of Manchester in England and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) announced that six radio telescopes in concert with the HST had ldquocaptured the first image ever recorded of an unbroken lsquoEinstein ringrsquordquo a ldquocircle of light created by the gravitational warping of space between a very distant galaxy and the earthrdquo Physicist Albert Einsteinrsquos general theory of relativity had predicted that ldquolight from a distant object would travel a curving path if it passed close to a massive object along the line of sight from Earthrdquo The radio image showed a fragmented group of bright arcs but the HST showed that the galaxyrsquos infrared emission region was perfectly in line with the gravitational lens and Earth confirming the existence of the Einstein ring452

APRIL 1998

1 April In a spacewalk lasting nearly 7 hours Mir cosmonauts failed to stabilize the solar panel damaged in a collision in 1997 Russian space officials had postponed this spacewalk from 3 March when the crew had been unable to unlock the hatch breaking three wrenches in their attempts Russian Space Agency cosmonauts Kazakh Talgat A Musabayev and Russian Nikolai M Budarin spent most of the spacewalk setting up a handrail left outside the space station by the previous crew

449 NASA ldquoEarth Dragging Space and Time as It Rotatesrdquo news release 98-51 27 March 1998 Reuters ldquoEinstein Proved Right Yet Againrdquo 26 March 1998 450 NASA ldquoNASA Awards $148 Million Contract to Raytheon STX Corprdquo contract announcement 27 March 1998 451 Tim Smart and Anne Swardson ldquoEuropean Space Firms Agree To Mergerdquo Washington Post 28 March 1998 452 Malcolm W Browne ldquolsquoEinstein Ringrsquo Caused by Space Warping Is Foundrdquo New York Times 31 March 1998

127


After struggling to unfold and assemble the handrail the pair only had enough time to install one of two footrests The cosmonauts returned to Mir after the elapse of 6 hours and 40 minutes their oxygen tanks only held approximately 7 hours of air Russian Mission Control had intentionally turned off the audio system during most of the spacewalk Officials said that Mission Control would no longer allow journalists to listen to radio traffic between Mission Control and spacewalkers because reporters had become overly critical Russian officials accused reporters of exaggerating problems on the space station despite the fact that Mir had been operating relatively trouble free for several months before this spacewalk453

An Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying a NASA satellite to study solar events that could endanger astronauts and spacecraft The Small Explorer (SMEX) satellite program under the management of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center had developed the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) satellite454

2 April Eberhard R M Rees deputy and later successor to Wernher von Braun as ldquochief of American rocketry effortsrdquo died at age 89 after suffering from Alzheimerrsquos disease Rees born in Germany had graduated from the Dresden Institute of Technology in 1934 with an advanced degree in mechanical engineering He had worked as a technical plant manager with the German Guided Missile Center beginning in 1940 but after Germanyrsquos defeat in World War II Rees became one of 118 scientists who surrendered to the West under the so-called Project Paperclip becoming a US citizen in 1954 In the United States he had first worked at White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico ldquowhere he shared his expertise on the V-2 a German rocket-propelled bomb and on guided missile projectsrdquo In 1950 Rees had moved to Huntsville Alabama to serve as Deputy Chief of the Guided Missile Development Division at Redstone Arsenal Among the projects Rees had managed were the Hermes II Project the Redstone and Jupiter missile programs the Explorer satellite project and the Saturn program Between 1956 and 1960 Rees had been Deputy Director of the US Army Ballistic Missile Agencyrsquos Development Operations Division He had received a Distinguished Service Medal from NASA for his role in the Apollo 11 Mission Rees had succeeded Wernher von Braun as Director of NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center in 1970 retiring in 1973455

3 April The Organization of American Historians presented the 1998 Richard W Leopold Prize to Andrew J Butrica for his book To See the Unseen A History of Planetary Radar Astronomy The organization awarded the biennial Richard W Leopold Prize ldquofor the best book written by an historian connected with federal state or municipal government in the areas of foreign policy military affairs the historical activities of the federal government or biography in one of these areasrdquo Butricarsquos book a comprehensive history of planetary radar astronomy was a

453 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoMir Crew Undertakes Six-Hour Spacewalk To Repair Solar Panelrdquo 1 April 1998 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 2 April 1998 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoMir Crew Runs Out of Time Fails To Stabilize Solar Panelrdquo1 April 1998 454 Associated Press ldquoBRFmdashSatellite Launchrdquo 2 April 1998 PR Newswire ldquoOrbitalrsquos Pegasus Rocket Successfully Launches TRACE Spacecraft for NASA Advanced SMEX Satellite Will Study the Sun Spacecraftrsquos First Signals Indicate Early Successrdquo 2 April 1998 455 Ford Burkhart ldquoEberhard Rees Rocketry Pioneer Dies at 89rdquo New York Times 4 April 1998

128


publication of the NASA History Series produced by the NASA Headquarters History Divisionrsquos Office of Policy and Plans456

6 April NASA released images recorded by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft showing the Cydonia region of Mars in 10 times more detail than that provided in the images recorded more than 20 years ago by one of the US Viking space probes In the new images the Sun was shining from the opposite direction than in the images recorded by the Viking probe Vikingrsquos images had revealed a surface formation in the hilly desert area Cydonia which some members of the public believed to be a monumental sculpture of a humanoid face in spite of NASA scientistsrsquo insistence that the ldquofacerdquo was only a common geological formation called a mesa Some of those people who believed the structure to be a sculpture had accused NASA of manipulating data in a conspiracy to keep the origins of the face a secret Surveyorrsquos new images confirmed NASArsquos previous analysis of the formation However in an effort to counteract the conspiracy rumors NASA posted on the Internet the raw data sent by Mars Global Surveyor and took no official position regarding what the images did or did not reveal Several planetary scientists remarked that ldquothe new image contained no surprises and no evidence of artificial originrdquo457

Cosmonauts Talgat A Musabayev and Nikolai M Budarin trying for a third time successfully stabilized a bent solar panel during a spacewalk of 4 hours and 15 minutes The solar panel was only one of 10 nonfunctioning panels The crew had not intended to repair the damaged panel fully but only to stabilize it so that it would not break loose and hit the space station The cosmonauts cut short the spacewalk scheduled to take 5frac12 hours when the thruster engine aligning Mir with the Sun ran out of fuel Forced to return to the space station early the cosmonauts were unable to remove some scientific equipment attached to the outside of the station458

7 April The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that Europersquos Infrared Space Observatory which had been orbiting Earth for two and one-half years had located water in unexpected places The most intriguing of these was the water vapor detected in the atmosphere of Saturnrsquos largest moon Titan ESA Director of Science Roger M Bonnet remarked ldquothe moon may duplicate the conditions that led to the creation of life on Earth and the only thing you need is a little heat to heat up Titan maybe [the] birth of life may be seenrdquo Chairperson of ESArsquos Astronomy Working Group Reinhard Genzel said that the Observatory had ldquoenabled scientists to see water throughout the universerdquo and that the water was likely brought ldquoto the icy outer planets by cometsrdquo He explained further that comets might have deposited the water on Earth during the early formation of the solar system when many comets constantly collided with the Earth459

8 April

456 NASA ldquoNASA History Wins Prestigious Prizerdquo news release 98-53 3 April 1998 457 Robert Lee Hotz ldquoCalifornia and the West Alien lsquoFacersquo Recedes into Martian Myth Space NASA Photo Appears To Show a Naturally Weathered Mesardquo Los Angeles Times 7 April 1998 Kathy Sawyer ldquoWith Mars Images NASA Says Face It Itrsquos a Mesardquo Washington Post 7 April 1998 458 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoMir Crew Shortens Spacewalk After Thruster Fuel Runs Outrdquo 7 April 1998 459 Edith M Lederer for Associated Press ldquoEurope-Space Waterrdquo 7 April 1998 Washington Times ldquoEuropersquos Space Surveyor Finds Water Vapor Near Stars Planetsrdquo 8 April 1998

129


NASA announced the selection of nine researchers to form the Science Team for the Mars Microprobes ldquoa technology validation mission that will hitchhike to the [R]ed [P]lanet aboard NASArsquos 1998 Mars Polar Lander missionrdquo NASA intended the probes to collect data measuring thermal and physical properties of the soil while searching for the presence of water ice The nine selected scientists were David C Catling Julio A Magalhaes Jeffrey E Moersch James R Murphy and Aaron Zent of NASArsquos Ames Research Center Ralph D Lorenz of the University of Arizona Paul Morgan of Northern Arizona University Bruce C Murray of California Institute of Technology and Marsha Presley of Arizona State University460

9 April US astronomers studying star formation reported that a body resembling a pinkish star at the center of the sword in the constellation Orion was ldquoa hotbed of star formation called the Orion Nebulardquo the site of a gas cloud generating enough water ldquoto fill the Earthrsquos oceans 60 times a dayrdquo The team of astronomers led by Martin O Harwit of Cornell University used the Infrared Space Observatory to observe the Orion Nebula detecting ldquolarge amounts of water vapor within clouds of gas on their way to becoming stars in the nebulardquo The discovery which demonstrated for the first time ldquothe vital role that water plays in star formationrdquo may ldquoprovide an important clue about the source of water in the [s]olar [s]ystemrdquo Michael Werner of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) emphasized the significance of the discovery saying that the data confirmed ldquothat water is prevalent in spacerdquo and ldquoplays a vital role in the chemistry and physics of interstellar cloudsrdquo461

15 April At a Kennedy Space Center (KSC) news conference Space Shuttle Program Manager Thomas W Holloway announced that an astronautrsquos error had caused a US$10 million solar satellite to malfunction after Space Shuttle Columbia released the satellite in November 1997 during Mission STS-87 An investigation revealed that astronaut Kalpana Chawla had not sent the Spartan satellite a key signal to activate itself Chawlarsquos efforts to recapture Spartan with the Shuttlersquos robotic arm had sent the satellite spinning and two astronauts had to undertake a spacewalk to retrieve it The review panel comprising both external experts and NASA staff found that Chawlarsquos crewmates ldquocould have helped her verify the commandrdquo but did not do so ldquobecause such vigilance was not part of the planrdquo The panel made nine major recommendations intended to help both the Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) programs Holloway announced that in response to the boardrsquos findings NASA would make numerous changes to training computers and procedures462

16 April James K Yungel a NASA scientist studying Earth remote sensing discussed a joint project underway at Monterey Peninsula Airport involving NASA the US Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The researchers had parked at the airport a

460 NASA ldquoScience Team Chosen for Technology Validation Mission To Explore the Subsurface of Marsrdquo news release 98-59 8 April 1998 461 Elizabeth Manning for United Press International ldquoMassive Water Find Linked to Star Birthrdquo 9 April 1998 462 Craig Covault ldquoShuttleSpartan Verdict Sparks Station Concernsrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 148 no 16 (20 April 1998) 26 Seth Borenstein ldquoAstronaut Gets Blame Lack of a Signal Causes Satellite To Failrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 16 April 1998

130


Twin Otter airplane with a scanning laser system and a global-positioning-satellite receiver to make precise measurements of the West Coast mapping the changes El Nintildeo had caused along the coastline The goal of the survey was to create ldquothe most highly detailed map yet of the West Coastrdquo increasing scientistsrsquo ability to predict erosion over the next decade463

Jeremy Lin of Taiwanrsquos Academia Sinica Institute and colleagues at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro New Mexico reported in the journal Nature that measurements taken with the worldrsquos largest radio telescopesmdashthe Very Large Array (VLA)mdash had detected ldquopeculiar bulges in the atmosphere of a giant starrdquo Huge plumes of gas thrust from beneath the surface of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse had likely caused the bulges Betelgeuse is located in the shoulder of the constellation Orion about 430 light-years from Earth The research team used the Y-shaped 22-mile-wide (35-kilometer-wide) cluster of 27 huge antennas of the VLA telescopes to capture the most detailed radio image ever taken of a star other than the Sun The team discovered that some of the gas in the starrsquos atmosphere was much cooler than previously believedmdashabout 5750degF (3200degC) The discovery of the lower temperatures enabled astronomers to understand ldquohow huge amounts of dust are constantly blown away from the starrdquo Before the lower temperatures were identified scientists had not been able to explain how the stellar dust formed because at ldquohigher temperatures the dust could not condense from the hot gas expelled from the starrsquos interiorrdquo Astronomers believe that dust created and expelled by stars like Betelgeuse ldquois distributed throughout the universe and provide[s] the raw materials that gave rise to life on Earthrdquo464

17 April After problems with one of two network-signal processors caused a 24-hour delay Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-90) blasted off on the Shuttle programrsquos final Neurolab mission carrying 26 experiments for basic research in neurosciences to ldquoexpand understanding of how the nervous system develops and functions in spacerdquo Test subjects aboard the Shuttle included crew members rats mice crickets snails and two kinds of fish The Neurolab mission was the joint effort of NASA several US partners the space agencies of Canada France and Germany the ESA and the National Space Development Agency of Japan Crew members included Commander Richard A Searfoss Pilot Scott D Altman Mission Specialists Richard M Linnehan Dafydd Rhys ldquoDaverdquo Williams and Kathryn P Hire and Payload Specialists Jay C Buckey Jr and James A Pawelczyk Mission Specialist Hire was the first KSC employee that NASA had selected as an astronaut candidate Mission STS-90 was Columbiarsquos 25th flight465

21 April Two scientific teams independently studying HR 4796 a star in the southern constellation Centaurus announced they had captured ldquothe strongest evidence yetrdquo of a new group of planets forming around the star The teams used the 10-meter (33-foot) W M Keck II Telescope on top of the extinct Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii and the National Science Foundationrsquos 4-meter

463 Michael McCabe ldquoNASA Mapping West Coast in Wake of El Nintildeo Most Rigorous Survey Ever Should Help Predict Erosionrdquo San Francisco Chronicle 17 April 1998 464 Malcolm W Browne ldquoAtmosphere Bulges on None-Too-Distant Starrdquo New York Times 21 April 1998 465 NASA ldquoNeurolab Shuttle Mission To Launch April 16rdquo news release N98-25 3 April 1998 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-90rdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-90html (accessed 11 June 2007)

131


(13-foot) Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile Using both of these sensitive new instruments the research teams believed they could see clearly through the glare of the star a planet-forming disc of gas and dust A third international team of British and American astronomers released the first images of the huge discs which appeared to be forming around two other stars Fomalhaut and Vega the star made famous in the novel and movie Contact The third team used the 15-meter (49-foot) James Clerk Maxwell Telescope also atop Mauna Kea Scientists considered the discoveries of the discs around the stars a missing link in the study of planetary system formation offering them clues about the formation of rocky planets like Earth466

22 April An international group of computer hackers calling itself Masters of Downloading or MOD announced that it had stolen key software programs from NASA The same group had previously broken into the Pentagonrsquos Defense Information Systems Network claiming to have stolen enough information to ldquolsquotake controlrsquo of military satellites and other systemsrdquo Although US Department of Defense officials said that MOD had downloaded an application for management and record keeping not for ldquoanything that could perform a control functionrdquo the group claimed that its cyber attack on NASA had ldquostripped the US space agency of its chief defense against computer intrusionrdquo MOD had sent the stolen samples of NASA software to a computer expert who maintained a Web site devoted to information-security issues The group which included at least two Russian members asserted that it had broken into NASArsquos system through JPL to obtain the software samples and threatened to sell the information to international terrorist groups or foreign governments467

23 April The Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force an independent task force convened at the request of NASA and charged with analyzing the cost and schedule of constructing and maintaining the ISS released its official report The task force concluded that ldquoprogram size complexity and ambitious schedule goals were beyond that which could be reasonably achieved within the [US]$21 billion annual cap or [US]$174 billion total caprdquo The task force concluded that ldquothe International Space Station will be delayed by up to three years and cost as much as [US]$250 million more per year relative to the FY 1999 budget submissionrdquo recommending that NASA ldquorevise the current [s]tation plan so that it is achievable with the funds availablerdquo NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin who had appointed Jay Chabrow to lead the task force told members of the US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies that he would not accept the task forcersquos conclusions because he had not yet fully reviewed the report Goldin told the panel that everyone involved in the space station program was very concerned about cost overruns and schedule slips but that if Congress imposed a cap on ISS funding it could affect the schedule significantly delaying the project up to two years Goldin warned ldquosuch a funding shortfall would hurt relations with the international partnersrdquo The report also placed much of the blame for the budget and schedule issues on Russia In 1993 the Clinton administration and top officials at NASA had advised Congress that were Russia not involved in the project NASA would

466 Kathy Sawyer ldquoOh Baby Telescopes Show the Birth of a Solar System New Imaging Sharpens Delivery Room Viewrdquo Washington Post 22 April 1998 467 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoNASA Becomes Latest Victim of Masters of Downloadingrdquo 23 April 1998

132


ldquosave an estimated [US]$2 billion expand the stationrsquos capabilities and enable the research station to be completed soonerrdquo However the task forcersquos report concluded that ldquothose assumptions were faultyrdquo468

29 April Astronauts and physicians Jay C Buckey Jr and Dafydd Rhys ldquoDaverdquo Williams performed the first surgeries ever conducted on living specimens while in orbit The two doctors injected chemical markers into the hind legs of six of the surviving baby rats to determine the role of gravity in the development of muscles The crew anesthetized the baby rats before injecting them with the pink florescent chemical the first time scientists had performed such a procedure in zero-gravity conditions In addition to studying how muscles and nerves develop in space the crew studied whether anesthesia really works without the help of gravity whether patients have more difficulty recovering from anesthesia in space and how wounds heal in space Two other astronauts successfully completed ldquothe most difficult medical procedure ever attempted on someone in spacerdquo The astronauts guided tiny needles into the nerves behind their knees in an experiment aimed at understanding and easing the blood pressure problems and dizziness that astronauts suffer after returning to Earth An estimated 500000 Americans experience the same symptoms every day when they stand up The needle enabled the astronauts to ldquolistenrdquo to electrical impulses as the brain sent messages to the nerve469

MAY 1998

1 May At the 13th annual NASA Continual Improvement and Reinvention Conference on Quality Management NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin presented five aerospace companies with the 1998 George M Low Award NASArsquos highest ldquoquality and excellencerdquo award for contractors and subcontractors The companies representing both large and small businesses were ILC Dover Inc of Frederica Delaware Allied Signal Technical Services Corporation of Lanham Maryland DynCorp Johnson Support Division of Houston Texas BST Systems Inc of Plainfield Connecticut and Advanced Technology Company of Pasadena California Administrator Goldin said ldquothese companies exemplify excellence and outstanding achievements that prove beneficial to NASA and the [n]ationrsquos industryrdquo Associate Administrator for Safety and Mission Assurance Frederick D Gregory added ldquoeach of these companies has definitely made a positive impact on NASArsquos performance goalsrdquo470

2 May The Chinese Long March 2C rocket launched two US satellites into orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province in northern China The satellites were part of a

468 NASA Advisory Council ldquoReport on the Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force on the International Space Stationrdquo 21 April 1998 httphistorynasagov32999pdf (accessed 24 September 2007) Larry Wheeler ldquoRussiarsquos Role in Station Has Project over Budget Behind Schedulerdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 24 April 1998 Aerospace Daily ldquoGoldin Not Sold on Report Finding Space Station Overrunsrdquo 24 April 1998 469 Seth Borenstein ldquoShuttle Surgeons Hope Rats Will Surviverdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 29 April 1998 Steven Young for Reuters ldquoUS Shuttle Crew Performs First Space Surgeryrdquo 29 April 1998 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttlerdquo 30 April 1998 Robyn Suriano ldquoAstronauts Listen to Brain-Nerve Chatterrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 30 April 1998470 NASA ldquoNASA Awards Five Firms the George M Low Awardrdquo news release 98-74 1 May 1998

133


mobile telecommunications system that Motorola Corporation had developed for the Iridium World Communications network scheduled to begin commercial service on 23 September 1998 The Iridium contract had ldquoboosted Chinarsquos launching industryrdquo which had been ldquostruggling to recover from a string of launch disasters in 1995 and 1996rdquo471

3 May Returning from the Neurolab mission Space Shuttle Columbia landed smoothly despite a malfunctioning hydraulic unit Most of Columbiarsquos 1-hour-long descent relied on two hydraulic units because the cooling system for the third unit had failed To prevent the third unit from overheating the crew turned it on just minutes before landing After the landing Mission Control congratulated the Neurolab astronauts on ldquoa historic mission that elevated neuroscience research to record heightsrdquo During the 16-day Neurolab flight the team had accomplished a number of experiments never before performed in space including the first direct nerve recordings the first joint recording of sleep and breathing the first embalming of animals and the first surgery on animals Because only the rodents aboard Columbia were accessible during the flight astronauts and scientists did not immediately know how the other animals including fish snails and crickets had fared A quick inspection after landing however ldquorevealed that only 25 of 225 baby swordtail fish survived the mission a much higher mortality rate than expectedrdquo The baby rats also had a higher mortality rate than expected 52 of the 96 baby rats had died in orbit after their mothers refused to nurse them NASA veterinarians had expected a dozen deaths from natural causes Animal rights groups criticized the experiments472

6 May At a NASA news conference astronomers discussed the discovery of the largest explosion ever sighted in space The journal Nature published three papers about the event detected on 14 December 1997 The explosion a gamma-ray burst (GRB) designated GRB971214 had occurred 12 billion years ago and had ldquoapparently outshone all the rest of the universerdquo for about 40 seconds The Italian-Dutch orbiting gamma-ray observatory BeppoSAX had measured the sharp pulse of gamma rays and ldquopinpointed the position of the raysrsquo sourcerdquo The United Statesrsquo Compton Gamma Ray Observatory satellite had also detected the gamma-ray pulse and scientific institutions around the world had monitored the after-effects of the explosion Twelve hours afterward John R Thorstensen of Dartmouth College had used a 94-inch-diameter (49shycentimeter-diameter) telescope at Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona to detect a visible afterglow which lasted for about two weeks After the glow had faded the scientists had discovered a faint galaxy in the same location A team of American Italian and Indian astronomers led by two California Institute of Technology scientists used the Keck II Telescope in Hawaii to measure the distance from Earth to the source of the burst No theorists were able to explain the explosion and no existing models explaining GRBs could explain the amount of energy emitted from GRB971214 The scientists suggested the possibility that a superdense neutron star had

471 Associated Press ldquoChina Puts 2 Satellites into Orbitrdquo 3 May 1998 472 USA Today ldquoScientists To Study Effects on Crittersrdquo 4 May 1998 Paul Hoversten ldquoMissionrsquos Data Has Scientists Feeling Antsy Neurolab Analysis Begins Todayrdquo USA Today 4 May 1998

134


ripped apart as it disappeared into a neighboring black hole or that a violent merger of two black holes had caused the burst473

7 May The US House Committee on Science and Technology held a hearing about the International Space Station (ISS) project focusing on the independent Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force headed by Jay Chabrow NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin had selected Chabrow to lead the investigation into the cost of the ISS The task forcersquos findings concluded that the space station may cost US$7 billion more than the original estimate and may take two years longer than anticipated to complete Congressional supporters and opponents of the program questioned NASA officials about the projectrsquos cost and slipping timetable but officials indicated that they needed a few more weeks to study Chabrowrsquos report and were unable to say whether they agreed with his teamrsquos figures However Goldin acknowledged that Russiarsquos participation in the program was not working He also promised to provide Congress with a new assessment of costs and with assembly schedules by 15 June including estimates for continuing the project without critical Russian equipment House Committee on Science and Technology Chairperson F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) seemed mollified after Goldin had spoken However Sensenbrenner ldquochastised the Clinton administrationrdquo remarking that its failure to send a representative from the Office of Management and Budget to the hearing reflected ldquothe low priorityrdquo the administration placed on solving the problems facing the ISS program474

A US Air Force Titan IV rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Florida carrying a spy satellite Civilian observers speculated that the spacecrafts name was Orion and that it would ldquoplay an important role in listening in on foes of the United Statesrdquo With a wire mesh antenna the size of a football field the satellite was so sensitive that it could ldquodetect transmissions from a radio the size of a wristwatch or a very small cell phonerdquo The satellite could also monitor electronic transmissions between military bases At the time of the launch the Titan was the most powerful American booster in use475

Launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome a Proton-K Russian booster carried into orbit an American EchoStar IV communications satellite to relay broadcast signals to the central and western United States Lockheed Martin Corporation had built the satellite and under a partnership agreement between Lockheed and the Russian Khrunichev company International Launch Services launched the spacecraft476

10 May NASA dedicated as a US Air Force conference center the newly renovated historic control center Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida the site of the Mercury program launches The domed blockhouse with 10-foot-thick (3-meter-thick) reinforced concrete walls had protected launch controllers from possible explosions of Atlas rockets

473 Malcolm W Browne ldquoAstronomers Detect Immense Explosion 2d Only to Big Bangrdquo New York Times 7 May 1998 NASA ldquoMost Powerful Explosion since the Big Bang Challenges Gamma Ray Burst Theoriesrdquo news release 98-75 6 May 1998 474 Warren E Leary ldquoSpace Planrsquos Costs Increase amid Delaysrdquo New York Times 7 May 1998 Larry Wheeler ldquoGoldin Rips Russians Promises New Station Schedule by June 15rdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 7 May 1998 475 Robyn Suriano ldquoTitan Rocket Sends Spy Satellite into Orbitrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 9 May 1998 476 Associated Press ldquoUS Satellite Launched from Russian Rocketrdquo 9 May 1998

135


launched only 1000 feet (305 meters) away The renovation preserved the periscopes that controllers had used to safely view launches The control center was at the launch site of the first piloted orbital flight of astronaut John H Glenn Jr477

13 May The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California a new weather satellite the NOAA-K aboard a 34shyyear old converted Titan II nuclear missile The satellite was an Advanced Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS-N) weather satellite able to see inside clouds a feature that scientists expected would greatly increase our knowledge of how hurricanes develop and move The TIROS-N was the latest model of TIROS satellite in four generations Lockheed Martin had last built a TIROS satellite for NASA and NOAA in 1960 After the launch of the TIROS-N the satellite would undergo a series of tests by NASA followed by a round of tests by NOAA before becoming fully available in time for next yearrsquos hurricane season478

14 May At a NASA press conference Ethan J Schreier of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and his colleagues discussed new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images The new images showed in greater clarity an old galaxyrsquos black hole ldquofeeding on a smaller younger galaxy that collided with itrdquo The scientists explained that the new images revealed young stars in the midst of an ldquoobviously old galaxyrdquo suggesting that a collision had occurred The merged galaxy complex known as Centaurus A was about 10 million light-years away from the Milky Way The images taken with HSTrsquos newest infrared camera also showed gas and dust feeding an apparent large black hole An inner disc of gas swirling around the black hole was behaving in a manner opposite to scientists expectations based upon the behavior of other galaxies Hans-Walter Rix of the University of Arizona theorized that the collision could explain the difference postulating that the HST ldquomay have caught Centaurus A in the midst of trying to realign itself after its spiral companion plowed into itrdquo Schreier offered an alternative explanationmdashthat the mass of the merged galaxies was greater than the mass of the black hole causing the gravitational pull to warp the inner disc479

The Iridium World Communications system global digital wireless communications network completed a series of deployment missions with the launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California of five Iridium satellites aboard a Boeing Delta II launch vehicle The successful launch had completed the entire Iridium constellation ldquoin just twelve monthsrdquo The worldrsquos first global wireless telephone company scheduled its commercial service to begin four months following this last launch once it had completed integrating and testing the Iridium system480

18 May

477 USA Today ldquoCape Canaveral Restores Piece of Space Age Historyrdquo 11 May 1998 478 Justin Ray ldquoNew NOAA Weather Satellite Will Keep a Better Eye on Hurricanesrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 14 May 1998 Business Wire ldquoNationrsquos Newest Advanced Weather Satellite Built by Lockheed Martin Launched Successfullyrdquo 14 May 1998 479 Elizabeth Manning for United Press International ldquoHubble Reveals Feeding Black Holerdquo 14 May 1998 NASA ldquoHubble Provides Multiple Views of How To Feed a Black Holerdquo news release 98-71 14 May 1998 480 PR Newswire ldquoBoeing Delta II Rocket Places Iridium Satellites into Orbitrdquo 17 May 1998

136


NASA successfully tested a fuel tank made of a new metal mixture aluminum lithium never before used in major US manufacturing The tank made of the new alloy was 30 percent stronger and 5 percent lighter than the aluminum magnesium tanks in use since the days of the Apollo program The tank showed no leaks pressure bulges or other problems when loaded with 537000 gallons (2033000 liters) of liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel Lockheed Martin had developed the new fuel tank to help ensure that NASA would be able to haul large sections of the ISS into orbit481

19 May NASA astronauts presented four employees of Boeing Reusable Space Systems with the Silver Snoopy one of the most prestigious honors available to people working on NASArsquos Space Shuttle program Mark Brewer of the orbiter electrical-avionics team Jeffrey Lewis of the midshymodule-major assembly team Michael Argent of the external-tank umbilical and payload latch-assembly programs and Larry Echaves of the configuration-management team each received a letter of commendation a poster a certificate and a Silver Snoopy pin that had flown in

482space

The PanAmSat-owned Galaxy IV a five-year old communications satellite ldquolost its bearingsrdquo so that its antennas were not directed toward Earth causing the ldquoworst outage in 37 years since communications satellites first entered servicerdquo Most of the 45 million pagers in the United States were unable to function during the outage which ldquosevered electronic links vital to thousands of retailers news organizations and broadcastersrdquo PanAmSat officials said that an attitude-control mechanism failed for an unknown reason and a backup processor failed to turn on causing the satellite to rotate At that point hundreds of thousands of satellite dishes in the United States lost contact with Galaxy IV483

21 May Chryssa Kouveliotou of the Universities Space Research Association led a team of astronomers at NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center in confirming the existence of magnetars a special class of neutron stars with a magnetic field one thousand trillion times the strength of Earthrsquos The team calculated the strength of SGR1806-20 first discovered in 1979 by combining data from NASArsquos Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite and the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics484

John S Lewis Codirector of the Space Engineering Research Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson testified before the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics concerning the potential danger of nearby asteroids His testimony supported the idea that any asteroid colliding with Earth in the next 100 years could only be an asteroid not yet known to scientists Lewis argued that since an international scientific effort could identify such an

481 Seth Borenstein ldquoShuttlersquos New Fuel Tank Test a Successrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 19 May 1998 482 Romy Jacobson ldquoHailing the Right Stuff NASA Honors Boeing Workersrdquo Los Angeles Daily News 20 May 1998 483 Mike Mills ldquoSatellite Glitch Cuts Off Data Flowrdquo Washington Post 21 May 1998 484 UniSci Science and Research News ldquolsquoMagnetarrsquo Generates Most Intense Magnetic Field in Universerdquo 21 May 1998 C Kouveliotou et al ldquoAn X-ray Pulsar with a Superstrong Magnetic Field in the Soft Gamma-Ray Repeater SGR1806-20rdquo Nature 393 no 6682 (21 May 1998) 235ndash237 NASA ldquoStrongest Stellar Magnetic Field Yet Observed Confirms Existence of Magnetarsrdquo news release 98-87 20 May 1998

137


asteroid easily he advocated ldquoa systematic globally-coordinated search and characterization program that costs less than a single small space missionrdquo Such a search he argued would ldquogive us adequate warning of a threatened asteroid impactrdquo so that we would ldquohave ample time to design build test and deploy an effective defense against the threatrdquo485

The US House of Representatives approved Representative David Weldon Jrrsquos (R-FL) amendment to the US$271 billion defense authorization bill to protect funding for launch ranges In the past six years the US Department of Defense had diverted money which would have modernized US Air Forcendashcontrolled launch ranges to cover costs associated with overseas deployments such as ongoing operations in Bosnia Weldon stated that diverting funds away from the launch ranges was a ldquonational security issue as well as a critical issue for NASA and commercial spacerdquo Weldonrsquos amendment reserved US$2733 million for the Cape Canaveral Range in Florida and US$1091 million for the Western Launch Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California486

Scientists published a study in the journal Science using images from the Galileo probe as evidence that an ocean beneath the surface of Europa one of Jupiterrsquos moons was once warm and salty James K Crowley of the US Geological Survey stated that Galileo data showed that ldquosalt absorption patterns on Europa were similar to those on Earthrdquo Gary B Hansen a University of Hawaii geophysicist added the observation that ldquothe size of the salt bands on Europarsquos surface are continuous and stretch across much of the moonrdquo evidence of a salty ocean beneath the moonrsquos icy surface Jeffrey S Kargel also of the US Geological Survey commented on his colleaguersquos study in Science saying that salt is an important ldquopiece in the puzzlerdquo but in the absence of other evidence does not prove that a salty ocean lies beneath Europarsquos surface Scientists seek other evidence such as shifting ice plates cracks in the frozen surface and a magnetic field487

27 May Images released at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Boston showed what scientists believed was the first evidence of ice on Mars outside of the planetrsquos polar ice caps The images showed a 30-mile-wide (48-kilometer-wide) crater containing a discolored area measuring about 12 to 18 miles (19 to 29 kilometers) across the bottom of the crater Some scientists thought the discoloration indicated the presence of some sort of deposit possibly frozen mud or sand evidence that ice is present or was present in the past Others offered a different theory about the contents of the images volcanic activity could explain the apparent deposit in the crater The images from Mars Global Surveyor had 10 to 12 times better resolution than any previous image of the crater Arizona State University researchers made another announcement regarding Surveyorrsquos data the Arizona researchers believed that a ldquoconcentration of a rust-colored mineral along the Mars equator indicates it once had boiling hydrothermal vents and perhaps huge lakesrdquo The mineral hematite was the first clear evidence of widespread thermal activity on

485 Federal Document Clearing House ldquoAsteroids Perils and Opportunitiesrdquo government news release of testimony of John S Lewis before the US House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Washington DC 21 May 1998 486 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoBill Protects Launch Range Moneyrdquo 22 May 1998 487 Michael Kahn for Reuters ldquoJupiter Moon Might Have Salt OceanmdashUS Studyrdquo 22 May 1998 T B McCord et al ldquoSalts on Europarsquos Surface Detected by Galileo near Infrared Mapping Spectrometerrdquo Science 280 no 5367 (22 May 1998) 1242

138


Mars NASA officials added that the finding indicated that water ldquowas once stable at or near the surface and that Mars had a thicker atmosphere in its early history probably 4 billion to 6 billion years agordquo488

28 May At the American Geophysical Union meeting in Boston astrophysicists Alexander G Kosovichev of Stanford University and Valentina V Zharkova of the University of Glasgow in Scotland presented evidence confirming their ldquosolar-bomb theoryrdquo Using sequential images that the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft had captured the two scientists explained that 20 minutes following the rupture of a solar flare from the surface of the Sun ldquoa seismic wave front surges across the [S]unrsquos face like ripples from a stone thrown into a pondrdquo The SOHO images proved that solar flares not only release energy into the Sunrsquos atmosphere but also ldquotrigger huge waves of seismic energy that ripple through the [S]un like earthquakesrdquo489

At a NASA press conference a team of NASA and university astronomers presented an image captured with the HST discussing their conclusion that the image provides the first direct evidence of a planet in another solar system Previously scientists had been able to infer the existence of such planets by observing their gravitational effect on suns but were unable to see them with telescopes Located 450 light-years away in the Taurus constellation a binary star system the planet appeared to be at least twice the size of Jupiter Designated TMR-1C the planet orbited 130 billion miles (210 billion kilometers) from its parent stars Scientists considered TMR-1C young by planetary standards to be forming still490

Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev announced that Russia had found the funds needed to continue participating in the ISS project Although the Russian Cabinet had rejected Koptevrsquos request for additional funds a meeting with Finance Minister Mikhail M Zadornov and Deputy Prime Minister Boris E Nemtsov had led to an agreement that funding for the ISS would come from a ldquospecial budget sectionrdquo However the Russian Space Agency provided no details of the funding plan Koptev also announced that the Russian Space Agency might scrap the Mir space station in the fall a year ahead of schedule to make more cash available for the ISS Koptev suggested that the space agency would look for revenue sources outside of the government491

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) successfully tested the first of four linked identical telescopes of 82-meter (27-foot) diameters comprising the Very Large Telescope (VLT) The VLT is the worldrsquos largest and most advanced Earth-based telescope with a collective diameter equal to16 meters (52 feet) The telescopersquos ldquofirst lightrdquo images (its first astronomically useful images) met the design goals Exposures lasting up to 10 minutes confirmed that the telescopersquos tracking was very accurate and stable The ESO had built the new telescope in the Atacama

488 Sharon L Lynch for Associated Press ldquoMars Discoveryrdquo 28 May 1998 Washington Times ldquoMinerals Suggest Life in Marsrsquo Past Scientists Eye Water Signs for Answersrdquo 28 May 1998 489 Elizabeth Manning for United Press International ldquoSolar Flares Trigger Sunquakesrdquo 27 May 1998 A G Kosovichev and V V Zharkova ldquoX-ray Flare Sparks Quake Inside Sunrdquo Nature 383 no 6683 (28 May 1998) 317 490 Martin Merzer ldquoScientists Distant Planet DiscoveredmdashHubble Photo May Confirm Sighting Outside Solar Systemrdquo Miami Herald 28 May 1998 491 Associated Press ldquoRussia-Spacerdquo 29 May 1998

139


Desert in northern Chile where a dry atmosphere and stable climate guaranteed clear skies 350 nights of the year492

30 May A computer failure aboard Mir partially affected the space stationrsquos solar panels causing the panel to fail to generate sufficient electricity and requiring the crew to use the Soyuz capsule thrusters for steering To conserve energy the crew turned off nonessential equipment including the air conditioner and lights Although they replaced the computer with a new one the crew was unable to load the necessary software The crew feared the failure might delay Space Shuttle Discoveryrsquos launch to Mir planned for 2 June493

31 May NASArsquos Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) spacecraft captured a video of a ldquoshort-lived but extremely bright explosion in the atmosphere of the sunrdquo The explosion was 55000 miles (89000 kilometers) long 200 miles (322 kilometers) wide and traveled at a rate of 2 million miles (32 million kilometers) per hour The explosions overlapped each other and ldquosnappedrdquo releasing ldquovast amounts of energyrdquo as solar flares Solar flares cause magnetic disturbances that disrupt satellites and power supplies if directed at Earth In April NASA had launched the TRACE spacecraft with a telescope 10 times more powerful than any other telescope focused on the Sun The telescope studied the transitional region of the Sunrsquos atmosphere between the relatively cool surface of the lower atmosphere with temperatures of 6000degC (11000degF) and the corona or upper atmosphere where temperatures reach 17 milliondegC (35 milliondegF) The telescope was able to photograph ultraviolet light and to show temperature variations using false colors494

JUNE 1998

1 June The 16 countries involved in the International Space Station (ISS) agreed for the second year in a row to delay construction naming 2004 as the new target date for completion The delay was primarily the result of Russiarsquos inability to pay its share of the programrsquos costs NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight Joseph H Rothenberg said that the new five-year schedule was ldquoextremely tight and allows for few if any launch delaysrdquo NASA estimated that the space station would require 43 flights for its assembly two fewer flights than previously scheduled Under the revised schedule Russia planned to launch nine flights three fewer than originally scheduled and NASA intended to launch 34 Shuttle flights to transport parts one more than originally planned To save money Russia canceled construction of two life-support modules and a stowage chamber495

492 Financial Times (London) ldquoStaring Out Across 14 Billion Light Years Technology Very Large Telescope The Earth-Based VLT Brings a Twinkle to a European Astronomerrsquos Eyerdquo 4 June 1998 493 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoCosmonauts Replace Mir Computerrdquo 31 May 1998 Marcia Dunn ldquoMir Space Station Has a New ProblemmdashComputer Failure Causes Solar Panels To Turn from Sunrdquo Seattle Times (WA) 31 May 1998 494 Mark Prigg ldquoPhotos Reveal Sunrsquos Powerrdquo Sunday Times (London) 7 June 1998 Leonard Novarro for Reuters ldquoSolar Flare May Disrupt Worldwide Communicationrdquo 8 June 1998 495 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoSpace Stationrdquo 1 June 1998 New York Times ldquoSpace Station Partners Approve Assembly Delayrdquo 1 June 1998

140


2 June Space Shuttle Discovery Mission STS-91 launched on schedule from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida despite problems with the automatic steering system on Mir The Shuttlersquos mission was to retrieve the seventh and last American to live aboard Mir The dayrsquos temperature reached 97ordmF (36ordmC) during the countdown making it the ldquohottest launch day anyone could rememberrdquo The mood of the launch was tense because NASA had never tested the new lightweight fuel tank during flight According to NASA officials the new tank worked well Among the crew members aboard Discovery was Valery V Ryumin veteran cosmonaut and chief of the Russian operations in the ShuttlendashMir program The Russian Space Agency had selected Ryumin to inspect Mir so that Russian officials could make an informed decision regarding how long cosmonauts could safely continue to inhabit the space station Other crew members included Commander Charles J Precourt Pilot Dominic L P Gorie and Mission Specialists Wendy B Lawrence Franklin R Chang-Digraveaz and Janet L Kavandi For the first time the Shuttle carried the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) designed to search for dark and missing matter (antimatter) in the universe496

3 June At the request of US Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Bill Frist (R-TN) the US General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report analyzing the United Statesrsquo role in the ISS and the cost of the program GAO estimated that life-cycle costs could reach US$96 billion US$2 billion more than the 1995 estimate and that these costs could increase further because of the potential for changes in the program According to the report ldquoat the current estimated spending rate the program would incur additional costs of more than [US]$100 million for every month of schedule slippagerdquo The report cited as reasons for the cost increases schedule slippage delays in production of components the need for additional flights to and from the space station and NASArsquos decision to change its tracking requirement for space debris GAOrsquos report added as much as US$1 billion to the estimate overall including crew-return-vehicle testing and resupply flights not part of the original NASA estimate Although the report cited US Department of Defense as the only agency with appropriate tracking equipment its equipment would need as much as US$5 billion in upgrades to handle the new NASA requirements The report also highlighted other issues including insufficient staff at KSC to handle nine Shuttle launches per

497year

The Boeing Company announced the creation of a new subsidiary called Boeing Space Operations based in Houston Texas at the Johnson Space Center which would provide various

496 NASA ldquoDiscovery Launch to Mir on Mission STS-91 Set for June 2rdquo news release 98-85 20 May 1998 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-91 Ninth and Final ShuttlendashMir Dockingrdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttle shuttlemissionsarchivessts-91html (accessed 11 June 2007) Chicago Tribune ldquoCosmonauts Fix Mirrsquos Steering Now Shuttle Launch Can Proceedrdquo 2 June 1998 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoDiscovery Soars on NASArsquos Last Voyage to Mirrdquo 2 June 1998 Robyn Suriano for Gannett News Service ldquoCelebrated Cosmonaut Comes Out of Retirement for Shuttle Missionrdquo 1 June 1998 497 US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Station US Life-Cycle Funding Requirements Statement of Allen Li Associate Director Defense Acquisitions Issues National Security and International Affairs Divisionrdquo testimony before the House Committee on Science and Technology report no GAOT-NSIAD-98-212 24 June 1998 Armed Forces Newswire Service ldquoSpace Station Costs Higher than Expected GAO Saysrdquo 17 June 1998 Tamara Lytle ldquoSpace Stationrsquos Costs Trouble 2 GOP Senatorsrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 3 June 1998

141


services for government and commercial space operations Rick Stephens the president of the new subsidiary stated that the goal of Boeing Space Operations was to make Boeing ldquothe global provider of low-cost reliable commercially based space operations servicesrdquo498

Space Shuttle Discovery encountered its first malfunction during Mission STS-91 when the KU-band system failed to switch on after Discoveryrsquos crew deployed its antenna upon reaching orbit The KU-band downlink carries broadcasts with a high rate of data The system failure prevented the Shuttle crew from sending televised images or high rates of information to Mission Control This problem had never occurred before NASA spokesperson James Hartsfield stated that it was unclear whether the trouble originated with the antenna transmitter or other associated equipment Hartsfield also mentioned that the failure would ldquoprevent immediate analysis of data from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometerrdquo The S-band antennas worked normally and the crew was able to talk with ground controllers as usual499

4 June Space Shuttle Discovery docked successfully with Mir Upon the opening of the hatches astronaut Andrew S W Thomas officially ended his 130-day mission aboard Mir and became a crew member of Discovery The transfer also marked the completion of a total of 907 days of US astronaut presence aboard the space station Because of the Ku-band failure Russian cameras on Mir recorded the docking while Russian ground stations televised live the meeting of the two crews500

During a meeting at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin directed MSFC officials to draw up a new plan for meeting the goals of the Bantam Program The programrsquos original goal had been to develop by 2001 a rocket capable of launching 150-kilogram or 015-tonne (331-pound or 02-ton) payloads at a cost of no more than US$15 million None of the rockets developed with NASA funding would have met that cost target Bantam Program Manager Sherry Buschmann reiterated NASArsquos commitment to ldquoachieving a capability to launch small payloads frequently at an affordable costrdquo saying that the plan would meet a ldquolegitimate need within the science communityrdquo501

NASA announced the astronaut candidate class of 1998 including 8 pilot candidates and 17 mission specialist candidates and composed of 21 male and 4 female candidates Among the candidate class was teacher Barbara R Morgan the former understudy to Christa McAuliffe NASA had designated Morgan as Educator Mission Specialist in January 1998502

5 June

498 James Wallace ldquoBoeing Forms a New Unit To Boost Its Space Businessrdquo Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) 3 June 1998 499 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-91rdquo Pauline Arrillaga for Associated Press ldquoShuttle Soars Toward Final Mir Docking but Antenna Wonrsquot Send TV Signalsrdquo 3 June 1998 Aerospace Daily ldquoLightweight Tank Perfect on First Flight KU-Band a Problemrdquo 4 June 1998 500 NASA ldquo Mission Archives STS-91rdquo Steven Young for Reuters ldquoShuttle Collects Last US Astronaut from Mirrdquo 5 June 1998 501 Warren Ferster ldquoNASA Shifts Gears on Low-Cost Launcher Goldin Renews Commitment to Bantam Goalsrdquo Space News 8ndash14 June 1998 502 NASA ldquoNASA Names Astronaut Class of 1998rdquo news release 98-97 4 June 1998

142


Mark H Thiemens professor of chemistry at the University of California at San Diego and a team of researchers published a study in the journal Science disputing NASArsquos theory that a rock from Mars contained evidence of life NASA scientists had studied the rock found in the Allen Hills ice field in Antarctica concluding that some carbonate mineral structures in the rock were evidence that microbes had lived in the rock before it ldquoblasted away from Marsrdquo during the collision of Mars with an asteroid millions of years ago By contrast Thiemensrsquos researchers concluded that the chemical characteristics of oxygen inside the rock originated from the carbon dioxide and ozone of the Martian atmosphere The team explained that if a microbe had deposited the oxygen ldquothe chemical signature of the minerals would have matched that of oxygen in water not oxygen in the atmosphererdquo According to the team this finding did not provide final proof that the rock had never contained life However it provided a significant argument against NASArsquos theory controversial since its first proposal in August 1996503

Astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Discovery attempted but failed to fix the spacecraftrsquos high- speed data-transmission system NASA believed the source of the problem was in an electronics box in the cargo bay but stated that only a spacewalk would enable the crew to reach the box NASA Mission Operations representative Robert E Castle Jr remarked that even with a spacewalk the astronauts would probably not be able to repair the malfunction Because of the lack of the high-speed data transmission system scientists could not view the data that the AMS had collected Although the Shuttle had stored the data on board NASA was unable to determine whether the data was useful or whether the instrumentrsquos adjustment was correct504

6 June Cosmonauts working aboard Mir conducted the first of two tests using green fluorescent gas made from combining nitrogen acetone and biacetyl gases to search for leaks in the Spektr laboratory module damaged in a collision in June 1997 However they were unable to pinpoint the sources of any seepage Because Mir was nearing its decommission stage Russia planned no repairs in the event that the cosmonauts were able to locate the leaks precisely Instead the tests were intended as practice for finding leaks on the future ISS505

8 June Space Shuttle Discovery undocked from Mir carrying back to Earth Australian-born Andrew S W Thomas the last of seven US astronauts to live aboard the station and marking the completion of Phase I of the ISS program Before closing the hatches Mir Commander Talgat A Musabayev presented Shuttle Commander Charles J Precourt with a huge wrench that had been used in spacewalks and would be flown to the future ISS506

NASA officials announced that the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore Maryland which had operated the science program for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) since 1983

503 James Farquhar Mark H Thiemens and Teresa Jackson ldquoAtmosphere-Surface Interactions on Mars Δ17Ο Measurements of Carbonate from ALH84001rdquo Science 280 no 5369 (June 5 1998) 1580 Los Angeles Times ldquoNew Meteorite Study Casts Doubt on Theory of Martian Liferdquo 5 June 1998 504 Marcia Dunn ldquoDiscover Astronauts Unable To Fix Communications Linkrdquo Buffalo News (NY) 6 June 1998 505 Mark Carreau ldquoAstronauts Unable To Spot Mir Hull Breachrdquo Houston Chronicle 7 June 1998 Marcia Dunn ldquoTest Fails To Find Leaks in Mirrdquo Seattle Times (WA) 7 June 1998 506 Pauline Arrillaga for Associated Press ldquoDiscovery Undocks from Mir Completes Historic Last Linkuprdquo 8 June 1998

143


would also manage the science operations for the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) As one of the cornerstone missions of the Astronomical Search for Origins and Planetary Systems a major project within its space science program NASA expected the NGST ldquoto provide a critical follow-on to the Hubble Space Telescoperdquo With capabilities unavailable in existing ground-based or space telescopes the NGSTrsquos purpose was to observe the first stars and galaxies in the universe to understand better how the universe formed after the Big Bang After consulting advisory committees Wesley T Huntress Jr Associate Administrator for NASArsquos Office of Space Science had decided that the ldquomost cost-effective and scientifically sound way to proceedrdquo would be ldquoto expand the [Space Telescope Science] Institutersquos responsibilities to include the managementrdquo of the new telescope507

Michael I Mott NASA Associate Deputy Administrator (Technical) one of NASArsquos top three managers announced his decision to leave NASA to join Boeing Space Transportation in Seal Beach California as Vice President of Business Development Mott had served as NASA Associate Deputy Administrator since January 1994508

9 June The US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies responsible for allocating space funding voted to back funding for NASArsquos ISS obligations but ldquocautioned the space agency to control costs and ensure Russiarsquos commitment to the expansive projectrdquo The subcommittee voted for a US$136 billion budget for NASA for the fiscal year including US$23 billion for the space station Senate Subcommittee Chairperson Christopher Bond (R-MO) said that although the budget was US$150 million more than President William J Clinton had requested it was US$33 million less than NASArsquos 1998 spending level509

Research scientists working on a US$33 million experiment to search for antimatter in space spoke at a news conference announcing that the communication-system breakdown on Space Shuttle Discovery had ruined their tests The astronauts had been unable to repair Discoveryrsquos main antenna system which had broken shortly after launch rendering the Shuttle unable to transmit high-speed data or video back to Earth Scientists working on the project needed continuous high-speed data to calibrate the AMS which was searching space for rare subatomic particles known as antimatter However using a patchwork system they had only been able to receive a few minutes of data each hour which meant that although they could see that the AMS was working the spectrometer was not providing them with enough data to fine tune the magnet According to Project Manager James Bates the scientists had failed to accomplish their objectives because of the malfunction510

10 June

507 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Home for Next Generation Space Telescoperdquo news release 98-96 8 June 1998 508 NASA ldquoMichael I Mott To Leave NASArdquo news release 98-99 8 June 1998 509 Patrick Connole for Reuters ldquoUS Senate Panel Backs Space Station Cut Superfundrdquo 9 June 1998 510 Seth Borenstein ldquoShuttle Physics Testing Thwarted A Glitch Has Undermined an Antimatter Experimentrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 10 June 1998

144


Aerojet announced it had won a US$485000 contract to build a rocket injector for NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that would help JPL scientists develop propulsion technologies for NASArsquos Mars Sample Return Vehicle511

12 June Space Shuttle Discovery landed safely at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida at 2 pm (EDT) returning the US astronaut Australian-born Andrew S W Thomas to Earth after four and one-half months in space Thomas unlike some of his predecessors took the medical advice typically given to astronauts returning from a lengthy stay in space and allowed medical personnel to carry him off the Shuttle rather than attempting to walk on his own512

17 June NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin submitted a 29-page report to lawmakers of the US House of Representatives officially responding to ldquoan independent review panelrsquos damning assessment that the [ISS] could cost US$73 billion more than NASA estimatedrdquo The panel had also reported that NASA would likely complete the ISS more than four years behind schedule Goldin acknowledged significant budget and schedule problems but maintained that NASArsquos plan remained manageable despite its shortcomings513

19 June The US House of Representatives subcommittee responsible for allocating funding for the space program voted on a US$133 billion budget for NASA US$138 million less than President William J Clinton had requested and US$300 million less than the US Senate subcommittee had approved Subcommittee Chairperson Jerry Lewis (R-CA) stated that the House had reduced the budget allocation because NASA planned to fly fewer Shuttle missions in the next fiscal years and because of the delays in assembling the ISS Unlike the Senate the House did not vote to monitor the budget of the program by creating a separate account for space station funding514

Hughes Global Services Inc announced the success of its salvage mission to a stranded Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Ltd communications satellite The 38-ton (3500shykilogram or 35-tonne) AsiaSat 3 had remained stranded in a useless orbit since its December 1997 launch Asia Satellite Telecommunications had received US$200 million from insurers The insurers had told Hughes Global Services to find a new customer if the salvage mission was successful Asia Satellite Telecommunications had originally intended AsiaSat 3 to provide television and telephone service in Asia but the Russian-built launcher had malfunctioned and the satellitersquos orbit had gone awry rendering it useless Hughes Global Services had taken possession of the satellite implementing a ldquoseemingly improbablerdquo mission to salvage the spacecraft Hughes had sent the satellite around the Moon twice using the Moonrsquos gravity to help correct the satellitersquos orbit around the Earth and declared the salvage mission a success

511 Sacramento Bee (CA) ldquoAerojet Lands Contractrdquo 11 June 1998 512 Steven Young for Reuters ldquoUS Space Shuttle Returns with Last Mir Astronautrdquo 12 June 1998 513 Larry Wheeler for Gannett News Service ldquoNASA Chief Admits Space Station Project Has Major Woesrdquo 17 June 1998 514 Brett Davis ldquoHouse Panel Approves $300 Million Less for NASA Budget than Senate Panelrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 19 June 1998

145


even though the satellite was not stationary which would limit the number of customers who might lease or buy it515

Eighteen members of the US House Committee on Science and Technology submitted a letter to President William J Clinton urging him to ldquoabandon plans to reach an agreement in China on expanding space cooperation because of Beijingrsquos weapons transfers and human rights abusesrdquo The letter was the Housersquos response to a 29 April report in the Washington Times disclosing a plan to conclude a space cooperation agreement at the Beijing summit The article discussed a draft agreement calling for the free and unrestricted exchange of scientific data between NASA and the State Science and Technology Commission of China a key developer of weapons-related technology The lawmakers warning that the pact would increase the likelihood of Chinarsquos sharing technology with rogue states referred to a CIA report stating that China had aimed 13 of its 18 long-range strategic missiles at the United States These comments emphasized the concern of members of Congress that China constituted a direct threat to the United States Many opponents of the agreement insisted that the United States should not share with China technologies or applications that enemies of the United States might use against the American people or US interests516

James B Willet a nuclear astrophysicist who had worked for NASA died of cancer at his Maryland home Willet had worked for 20 years on the scientific staff of NASArsquos JPL in Pasadena California and for three years as JPLrsquos liaison to NASA Headquarters before joining the Space Research Association in 1993 At JPL Willet had acted as a science coordinator and team chief for the Galileo Mission Galileo was orbiting Jupiter at the time of his death Willet was also a field operations team leader for the Mars balloon-testing program and had conducted research in gamma-ray astronomy Willetrsquos duties as liaison officer involved him in the Voyager Ulysses and Pioneer programs517

NASA officials at Lewis Research Center (LERC) in Cleveland Ohio announced the new five-year collaborative program of LERC and Case Western Reserve University The programrsquos name the Glennan Microsystems Initiative honored the late T Keith Glennan the first NASA Administrator who had served from 1958 to 1961 Glennan was also President Emeritus of Case Institute of Technology forerunner of Case Western Reserve University Backed with US$16 million in federal funds and US$45 million in state funds the initiative planned to ldquodevelop and apply the technology known as microelectricomechanical systems for industry and for NASArdquo LERC planned to develop systems for use a decade into the future including power systems for the next space station518

20 June The Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (HAL5) a chapter of the National Space Society failed in its second attempt to become the first group of amateurs to launch a rocket into space The

515 Andrew Pollack for Associated Press ldquoRescue Effort Puts a Satellite in Viable Orbitrdquo New York Times 19 June 1998 Associated Press ldquoUS Satellitesrdquo 19 June 1998 516 Bill Gertz ldquoHouse Science Panelists Oppose Space Pact with Chinardquo Washington Times 24 June 1998 517 Buffalo News (NY) ldquoJames B Willet Nuclear Astrophysicistrdquo 20 June 1998 518 Jennifer Arend ldquoLewis Research Launches Effort To Develop Technologyrdquo Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH) 20 June 1998

146


society attempted to use a hot-air balloon from a NASA barge in the Gulf of Mexico to launch its rocket a launch concept known as a rockoon According to the rockoon concept a small rocket may ldquoobtain very high altitude because there is little air to slow it down during launchrdquo James A Van Allen had been the first to fly rockoons in the 1950s as part of a joint US Navy-University of Iowa project The US Navy had abandoned the technique after large ground-based sounding rockets became available NASArsquos MSFC signed a cooperative agreement with HAL5 in 1996 continuing the relationship for the High Altitude Lift-Off mission MSFC had supplied HAL5 with the barge helium for the balloon nitrous oxide for the rocket and some funds for materials HAL5 sought to ldquomake space more affordable for students amateurs experimenters and researchersrdquo NASA was examining alternate launch sites and methods in an effort to find ways of reducing the cost of rocket launches519

23 June The Lewis Spacecraft Mission Failure Investigation Board convened by NASA released its report explaining the reason for the spacecraftrsquos failure which had cost NASA more than US$70 million NASA had developed the Earth-orbiting spacecraft to test advanced scientific equipment and technology for measuring land surface changes The spacecraft launched on 23 August 1997 had failed to achieve stable orbit According to the boardrsquos findings faulty attitude-control equipment together with inadequate monitoring had caused the craftrsquos destruction upon reentry on 28 September The investigation board reported that the attitude-control system had not been tested or developed sufficiently NASA had adapted the system from an earlier design which had not taken into account the Lewis spacecraftrsquos spin axis The small project crew had been unable to monitor and control the craft adequately during the crucial early flight stage According to the investigation boardrsquos report this was the primary cause of the missionrsquos failure520

24 June US House Committee on Science and Technology Chairperson F James Sensenbrenner Jr (RshyWI) and ranking Representative George F Brown Jr (D-CA) submitted a letter to President William J Clinton requesting that he supply a plan within 30 days ldquodetailing how the [a]dministration expects to resolve the dire problems surrounding the International Space Stationrdquo The two members of Congress asked President Clinton to intervene with President Boris N Yeltsin to ldquoensure full Russian compliance with its stated commitments to the space stationrdquo In the aftermath of the announcement of the independent Cost Assessment and Validation Task Forcersquos findings on the ISS the members of Congress were attempting to rectify the inadequate budget submission They asked the President to ldquodirect the Office of Management and Budget to deliver a workable plan to Congress so that the relevant

519 HAL5 Project ldquoSpace Group Hopes To Launch First Amateur Rocket into Spacerdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 17 June 1998 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoSpace Buffs in Alabama Canrsquot Get Rocket Launchedrdquo 21 June 1998 William R Corliss ldquoChapter 4 Development of the First Sounding Rocketsrdquo in NASA Sounding Rockets 1958ndash 1968 A Historical Summary (Washington DC NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office 1971) httphistorynasagovSP-4401contentshtm (accessed 30 January 2008) 520 NASA ldquoLewis Spacecraft Failure Board Report Releasedrdquo news release 98-109 23 June 1998 Defense Daily ldquoNASA Blames Spacecraft Loss on Equipment Monitoringrdquo 24 June 1998

147


[c]ongressional committees can consider OMB numbers when crafting NASA appropriations and authorization billsrdquo521

At a hearing of the US House Committee on Science and Technology NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin defended NASArsquos purpose and role in the ISS project Representative Nicholas V Lampson (D-TX) advised Goldin that cost overruns and Russiarsquos failure to meet its agreement had caused some lawmakers to propose cancelling the space station Goldin responded that canceling the ISS would cancel human spaceflight relegate the United States to second-class power status and have international repercussions Lawmakers at the hearing asked Goldin to furnish NASArsquos proposal to overcome the problems associated with the ISS providing estimates of the amount necessary to complete the project Goldin refused to give specifics until NASA had evaluated several plans and calculated the cost of the alternative plans including contingency plans in the event Russia could not meet its commitment522

Controllers at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) sent routine commands to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) to maneuver the satellite Instead of responding correctly SOHO suddenly went into emergency Sun reacquisition mode (ESR) ldquoactivated when an anomaly occurs and the spacecraft loses its orientation toward the Sunrdquo Consequently NASA lost all communication with the satellite along with the ability to track it SOHOrsquos mission was to track ldquomajor solar activity that may induce power outages and interfere with radio TV and other signals from spacerdquo The mission was particularly important because of the anticipated solar maximum expected to occur during the year 2000 During the solar maximum a phenomenon that peaks every 11 years the Sun emits intense radiation capable of scrambling signals from communications satellites and causing power failures as well as brilliant auroras The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA had launched SOHO in December 1995 as a joint mission In April 1998 the spacecraft had successfully completed its initial two-year mission to study the Sunrsquos atmosphere surface and interior523

25 June James L Elliot an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues together with Lowell Observatory and Williams College published findings in the journal Nature based on data obtained from NASArsquos HST The data indicated that Neptunersquos largest moon Triton had warmed up significantly since the Voyager spacecraftrsquos visit in 1989 Tritonrsquos temperature had risen from 37 K (-393degF or -236degC) to 39 K (-389degF or -234degC) a 5 percent increase The astronomers traced the warming trend to seasonal changes in Tritonrsquos polar ice caps attributed to ldquoan extreme southern summerrdquo a cyclical phenomenon occurring every few hundred years Other possible explanations included a changing frost pattern on Tritonrsquos surface which could have caused the surface to absorb more of the Sunrsquos warmth or changes in the reflectivity of Tritonrsquos ice which could have caused it to absorb more heat Because of the warming Tritonrsquos frozen nitrogen surface was turning into gas making its thin atmosphere

521 Federal Document Clearing Houserdquo Committee Asks Clinton for Space Station Planrdquo government news release 24 June 1998 522 Paul Recer for Associated Press ldquoNASA Defends Space Station Plansrdquo 24 June 1998 John C Henry ldquoNASA Chief Concedes Space Station DelaysmdashHas Contingency Plans If Russia Canrsquot Do Its Partrdquo San Diego Union- Tribune (CA) 25 June 1998 523 NASA ldquoSOHO Spacecraft Observations Interruptedrdquo news release 98-112 26 June 1998 Paul Hoversten ldquoSun- Studying Probe Failing To Respond NASA Fears Itrsquos Lostrdquo USA Today 29 June 1998

148


denser The scientists hoped their study of the changes on Triton would provide insight into global warming on Earth which has a more complicated environment than Triton HSTrsquos ldquodetection of an increase in the moonrsquos atmospheric pressurerdquo measured with one of the space telescopersquos three fine guidance sensors had provided the clue to the increased surface temperature524

30 June NASA announced that experts from the ESA and Matra Marconi Space the prime contractor for the SOHO spacecraft had met at GSFC in Greenbelt Maryland to assess the situation of the noncommunicating spacecraft and to analyze the satellitersquos status in the event that ground controllers reestablished contact with it Participants at the meeting named as cochairs of a joint inquiry board to investigate the incident Professor Massimo Trella the ESArsquos Inspector General and Michael A Greenfield Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA Headquarters525

The European Science Foundation and the US National Research Council published a joint study analyzing 13 projects in astrophysics planetary science space physics earth science and microgravity research The report advised the United States and its international partners to ldquoset aside a specific part of their annual space budgets to plan for future critical joint exploration projectsrdquo highlighting factors hampering cooperation within the projects analyzed Hampering factors included cultural differences poorly defined objectives and ldquolukewarm support from the scientific community for projects undertaken more for political than research reasonsrdquo The report set forth recommendations for successfully pursuing cooperative space projects within tight budget constraints526

JULY 1998

2 July PanAmSat Corporation announced the impairment of a critical subsystem of its Galaxy VII spacecraft A spokesperson for the company said that engineers had not yet determined whether the problem was the same as that which caused the failure of the Galaxy IV spacecraft on 19 May Both the primary and backup systems keeping the Galaxy IV correctly pointed toward Earth-bound controllers had failed but although the Galaxy VII had lost its primary system its backup system had continued to function properly Hughes Electronics Corporationrsquos Space and Communications Company the manufacturer of the two satellites was investigating the failures Both satellites were HS601 models the worldrsquos ldquobest-selling large communications satelliterdquo

524 NASA ldquoHubble Space Telescope Helps Find Evidence that Neptunersquos Largest Moon Is Warming Uprdquo news release 98-110 24 June 1998 J L Eliot et al ldquoGlobal Warming on Tritonrdquo Nature 393 no 6687 (25 June 1998) 765ndash767 525 NASA ldquoEfforts To Recover SOHO Spacecraft Continue as Inquiry Board Co-Chairs Namedrdquo news release 98shy118 30 June 1998 526 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoStudy Space Projects Need Good Sciencerdquo 30 June 1998 European Space Foundation ldquoTransatlantic Study Identifies Keys to Success in International Space Collaborationrdquo news release 30 June 1998 httpwwwesforgmedia-centrepress-releasesext-single-newsarticletransatlantic-study-identifies-keys-to-sucess-in-international-space-collaborations-220html (accessed 27 September 2007)

149


with customers including the US Navy NASA the government of Mexico and communications companies throughout the world527

SPACEHAB Inc a Virginia-based commercial space company with a staff of 85 purchased the Johnson Engineering Corporation a 400-person firm contracted to support NASArsquos Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston Texas SPACEHABrsquos chairperson said the company would ldquoexpand the use of Johnson Engineeringrsquos larger technical staff to support its plans for expansion into the commercial space arenardquo Investors had incorporated SPACEHAB in 1984 to ldquodevelop a commercial research module that could accommodate small private as well as government-financed science experiments and engineering tests during [S]pace [S]huttle mission[s]rdquo However when the anticipated commercial market had failed to develop SPACEHAB ldquochanged its strategyrdquo winning NASA contracts NASA used SPACEHAB modules stored in the Shuttlersquos payload bays as cargo containers for storing ldquotons of food clothing and other gear that was ferried to Russiarsquos Mir space station aboard a series of recently concluded US [S]huttle flightsrdquo528

Russia announced it would retire the Mir space station during the summer of 1999 six months earlier than originally planned The decision resulted from a meeting between Russian Space Agency Director General Yuri N Koptev and Deputy Prime Minister Boris E Nemtsov who agreed that Russia had insufficient funds to continue to fly the station The agreement allocated approximately US$100 million for Mirrsquos final year including funds for ldquoa series of rockets to direct Mir to an unpopulated area of the Pacific Oceanrdquo Nemtsov also agreed to pay the Russian Space Agency the US$600 million owed for Mirrsquos operations in 1997 using ldquounspecified lsquononbudgetary sourcesrsquordquo529

4 July Due to arrive at Mars in October 1999 after a period of orbiting Earth Japanrsquos Planet B spacecraft launched from Kagoshima Space Center on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu The Japanese Education Ministryrsquos Institute of Space and Aerospace Science developed the probe nicknamed Nozomi or Hope The probe carried 14 scientific instruments developed by Canada Germany Japan Sweden and the United States NASA provided two instruments for the probe the Neutral Mass Spectrometer designed to measure the gas composition of Marsrsquos upper atmosphere for the first time and the Ultra Stable Oscillator deployed to support a radio science experiment also involving analysis of the Martian atmosphere and to guide the spacecraft in its orbit around Mars530

6 July US Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) announced that Alliant Techsystems would build composite materials such as booster nose cones for the Boeing Delta IV rocket at Iuka Mississippi a former site of the Tennessee Valley Authority and NASA The rocket would

527 Robert Covington for Reuters ldquoSecond PanAmSat Satellite Encounters Problemsrdquo 2 July 1998 528 Mark Carreau ldquoSpacehab of Virginia Acquires NASA Contractorrdquo Houston Chronicle 5 July 1998 529 Adam Tanner for Reuters ldquoRussia Agrees to Early End for Mir Space Stationrdquo 2 July 1998 Anna Dolgov for Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 3 July 1998 530 NASA ldquoNASA Instruments on Japanese Planet-B Spacecraft Will Aid Studies of Martian Upper Atmosphererdquo news release 98-119 1 July 1998 United Press International ldquoJapan Launches First Mars Missionrdquo 4 July 1998

150


ldquocompete for Air Force and commercial contracts for satellite launchesrdquo while Senator Lott and US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairperson Richard Shelby (R-AL) would continue to investigate whether launching US-made satellites on Chinese rockets was compromising US security Rod Bitz the director of corporate communications for Alliant said ldquoIuka was chosen in part because the large structures can be easily shipped by barge to Decaturrdquo Engineers at the new Boeing plant in Decatur Alabama would assemble the rocket531

7 July In a vote of 66 to 33 the US Senate defeated Senator Dale Bumpersrsquos (D-AK) amendment to the appropriations bill for the Veterans Administration Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies The amendment would have cut the United Statesrsquo US$23 billion share of the FY 1999 budget for the International Space Station (ISS) cancelling the ISS program During floor debate preceding the vote Senator Bumpers who had been trying to eliminate US funding for the space station for the past eight years referred to the previous monthrsquos US General Accounting Office report The report had projected that the cost to develop assemble and operate the space station over several years would reach US$100 billion in part because of recurring cost overruns Senator John H Glenn Jr (D-OH) countered Senator Bumpersrsquos arguments against the space station citing the ldquoincredible scientific possibilitiesrdquo that could result from research on the ISS in such areas as neurology sleep disorders and balance532

Rocket engineer Max E Nowak died of natural causes at the age of 89 An original member of Wernher von Braunrsquos German rocket team which developed the V-1 and V-2 rockets during World War II Nowak had been among the first of the team members to move to the United States after the war He had been the assistant to the director of the manufacturing engineering lab during the Apollo program and had directed the assembly of systems for the Saturn I nose cones and Saturn V launch systems533

Japanrsquos National Space Development Agency (NASDA) docked the two satellites⎯Orihime and Hikoboshi⎯in outer space marking the first time two robotic spacecraft had docked using remote control US and Russian space programs had used remote control to dock pilotless cargo craft with the piloted Mir space station but had never maneuvered two robotic spacecraft together NASA spokesperson Brian D Welch called the accomplishment ldquoan impressive featrdquo NASDA timed the rendezvous of the two satellites to coincide with Japanrsquos Tanabata or star festival on 7 July celebrating ldquoa mythical meeting between the princess Orihime and her lover Hikoboshirdquo associated with the stars Altair and Vega According to the legend the pair may meet only once a year on 7 July534

NASA announced that JSC had modified its contract with United Space Alliance awarding the contractor more Shuttle work Three other NASA contractors had previously performed the more

531 James W Brosnan ldquoIuka Revving Up for Rockets Again Will Be Part of Delta IV Projectrdquo Commercial Appeal (Memphis TN) 7 July 1998 532 Frederic J Frommer for Associated Press ldquoSpace Stationrdquo 7 July 1998 Vickie Allen for Reuters ldquoInternational Space Station Survives Senate Voterdquo 7 July 1998 Federal Document Clearing House ldquoBumpers Amendment Would Ground Space Stationrdquo government news release 7 July 1998 533 Associated Press ldquo3 Rocket Scientists Dierdquo 12 July 1998 534 Associated Press ldquoJapanese Are Unveiling Stellar Space Program Progress Has Been Made Cheaply and Quietlyrdquo New Orleans Times-Picayune 8 July 1998

151


than US$900 million of work on the Space Shuttlersquos solid rocket booster and other elements USBI Company at Kennedy Space Center had worked on the boosters Lockheed Martin Corporation in Houston Texas had designed and produced the primary Shuttle avionics software and Boeing Aerospace Operations in Houston had processed flight equipment535

8 July S George Djorgovski an astronomer at California Institute of Technology Dale A Frail an astronomer with the Very Large Array (VLA) Observatory in Socorro New Mexico and their colleagues issued a notice to fellow astronomers regarding a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected on 2 July Frail and Djorgovski had combined the resources of the VLA and the W M Keck Observatory in Hawaii to pinpoint the source of the burst which they calculated to be a galaxy ldquoalive with new-forming starsrdquo billions of light-years away from Earth Although scientists did not yet know the cause of GRBs Frail remarked ldquothe fact that this burst happened in a hot galaxy where new stars are being rapidly formed is probably the death knell for the theory that collisions between old dying neutron stars are responsible for the gamma-ray burstsrdquo536

9 July Heinrich K Paetz an original member of Wernher von Braunrsquos German rocket team died of natural causes at the age of 88 the second team member to die within the week Before retiring from NASA in 1970 Paetz had participated in the Redstone Jupiter Saturn I and Saturn V programs as a member of the test branch537

A month after its launch the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began activating the weather satellite Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-10 (GOESshy10) a backup to the failing GOES-9 satellite The momentum wheels on GOES-9 similar to a gyroscope which maintain the satellitersquos stability were ldquoshowing signs of impending failurerdquo GOES-9 was responsible for monitoring weather on the west coast of the United States GOESshy10 placed in storage mode above the center of the country would need about 30 days moving approximately 1ordm of longitude each day to move to the west coast location GOES-10rsquos well-timed placement in storage mode would ensure data continuity saving NOAA a 12- to 15-month wait for a time slot for launch following the imminent failure of GOES-9538

10 July Rocket scientist Albert E Schuler died of natural causes at the age of 83 the third original member of Wernher von Braunrsquos rocket team to die in the same week Schuler had retired from NASA in 1969 after a career overseeing measurement of instrumentation on test stands and rockets during static firings and overseeing flight instrumentation guidance and control on rocket flights539

14 July

535 NASA ldquoNASA Awards More Shuttle Work to USArdquo news release c98-h 7 July 1998 536 John Fleck ldquoNM Scientists Track Galaxy Blast Explosion Is Billions of Light Years Awayrdquo Albuquerque Journal (NM) 9 July 1998 537 Associated Press ldquo3 Rocket Scientists Dierdquo 538 Associated Press ldquoFailing Weather Satellite Replacedrdquo 10 July 1998 539 Associated Press ldquo3 Rocket Scientists Dierdquo

152


NASA announced the establishment of a Near-Earth Object Program Office at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) responsible for coordinating ldquoNASA-sponsored efforts to detect track and characterize potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that could approach Earthrdquo and with facilitating communication between scientists and the public were NASA to discover any potentially hazardous objects NASA selected JPL to host the new program because of ldquoits expertise in tracking precisely the positions and predicted paths of asteroids and cometsrdquo540

15 July NASA released ldquounusually detailedrdquo images of Jupiterrsquos moon Ganymede taken by the Galileo probe in June 1996 and June 1997 Although the images did not indicate the existence of any form of life they showed that life had been possible in Ganymedersquos oceans billions of years ago At that time the moon had water heat and organic material brought by comets from outer space The images also revealed geological formations including mountain-like ridges and a valley system of volcanoes Early in the moonrsquos history the volcanoes had supplied water for Ganymedersquos oceans which are now frozen541

NASArsquos Inventions and Contributions Board announced the winners of its 1998 Software of the Year Award The first winner Tempest a breakthrough technology ldquooriginally developed to support the science experiments on the ISSrdquo had ldquospawned new marketsrdquo and NASA predicted that the technology would continue to do so NASArsquos Ames Research Center had designed the second winner Center TRACON Automation System Software a set of three software tools for managing air-trafficndashcontrol systems at major airports to optimize flight operations Analyzing and predicting aircraft paths the software created visual representations of arriving traffic flow providing controllers with ldquoup-to-the-second advisories of informationrdquo for pilots thus reducing time between landings to a minimum The Federal Aviation Administration had chosen the software for immediate implementation at all major airports542

NASA officially opened its new communications terminal on Guam to provide ldquoglobal full-time and real-time communications support for NASArsquos Space Network customersrdquo The Guam ground station replaced the interim ground terminal in Canberra Australia established to provide continuous full-time real-time communications support for NASArsquos Compton Gamma Ray Observatory after it had ldquosuffered an on-board tape recorder failure in March 1992rdquo543

16 July The joint committee of NASA and the European Space Agency investigating the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) incident issued a preliminary report The committee found that several errors had led to the loss of the satellitersquos signal First Mission Control had ldquounknowingly activatedrdquo two preprogrammed sequences which lacked commands to reorient the spacecraft properly The resulting anomalies had caused SOHO to enter into emergency Sun reacquisition mode (ESR) A ldquorapid decisionrdquo to turn off one of the craftrsquos gyroscopes had

540 NASA ldquoNASA Establishes Near-Earth Object Program Office at Jet Propulsion Laboratoryrdquo news release 98shy123 14 July 1998 541 Paul Hoversten ldquoPhotos Suggest Life Could Have Existed on Jupiterrsquos Moonrdquo USA Today 16 July 1998 New York Times ldquoHints of an Ocean on Jupiterrsquos Moon Yield Questions About Liferdquo 16 July 1998 542 NASA ldquoSpace Flight Aviation Programs Receive NASA Software Awardrdquo news release 98-124 15 July 1998 543 NASA ldquoNew NASA Facility Will Complete Worldwide Communications Coveragerdquo news release 98-122 13 July 1998

153


ultimately triggered two more ESRs sending the spacecraft ldquoflailing out of controlrdquo Controllers also discovered that ldquoundetected failuresrdquo which had occurred sometime earlier in the year ldquohad taken out three of the four batteriesrdquo544

17 July US Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) offered an amendment to the Subcommittee on Veterans Administration Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agenciesrsquo FY 1999 appropriations bill adding US$33 million to the US$150 million budget for NASA already approved by the Senate Committee on Appropriations The Senate defeated the amendment by a vote of 58 to 37 President William J Clintonrsquos proposed budget had requested a US$183 million reduction in NASArsquos budget545

20 July The data transmission system of Galileo malfunctioned during its fifth flyby of Jupiterrsquos moon Europa when it went into safe mode Although NASA engineers activated a backup system the transmission system had lost all data collected when the craft passed within 1141 miles (1835 kilometers) of the moon NASA was investigating the malfunction NASA had launched Galileo in 1989 and the probe had entered Jupiterrsquos orbit in 1995 collecting data from moons Io Europa and Callisto during its initial two-year mission completed in December 1997 NASA had extended the mission for two additional years546

21 July Alan B Shepard Jr the first American in space died in his sleep at the age of 74 after a two-year battle with leukemia NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin remembered him for being ldquoone of the original seven Mercury astronauts for being the first American to fly in space and for being one of only 12 Americans to step on the Moonrdquo A former US Navy pilot Shepard had first traveled to space on 5 May 1961 just 23 days after the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth Shepard the lone astronaut in the small space capsule Freedom 7 rocketed 116 miles (187 kilometers) above Earth as millions of people watched him live on television Shepardrsquos spaceflight proved a significant morale-boosting moment for Americans in the midst of the Cold War with the Soviet Union which until then had appeared to be winning the space race After the flight President John F Kennedy presented Shepard with the Distinguished Service Medal challenging the nation to put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade Shepard made history again in 1971 when he commanded Apollo 14 on its nine-day mission to the Moon He delighted Americans watching the expedition on television when taking a break from collecting Moon rocks he hit two golf balls with an improvised club Shepard who had retired from NASA and the US Navy in 1974 received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1979 Shepard also engaged in philanthropic pursuits such as investing

544 NASA ldquoEfforts To Recover SOHO Spacecraft Continue as Investigation Board Focuses on Most Likely Causesrdquo news release 98-125 16 July 1998 James Glanz ldquoChain of Errors Hurled Probe into Spinrdquo Science 281 no 5376 (24 July 1998) 499 United Press International ldquoUPI Science Newsrdquo 28 July 1998 545 Federal Document Clearing House ldquoSenator Sessions Offers Amendment To Increase NASArsquos Budget by $33 Millionrdquo government news release 17 July 1998 546 Agence France-Presse ldquoGalileo Probe Suffers Malfunction in Jupiter Moon Flybyrdquo 22 July 1998 Associated Press ldquoSpacecraft Galileo Working Againrdquo 24 July 1998

154


in the establishment of the Astronaut Foundation which provides scholarships The Astronaut Foundation had also founded the Space Camp program for young people547

22 July NASA named astronaut Terrence W Wilcutt to replace James D Halsell Jr as NASArsquos Manager of Operational Activities at Star City Russia Wilcutt was the 10th astronaut to serve in the rotational position supporting the training and preparation of NASA astronauts at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and acting as a liaison between NASA and Russian management Wilcutt had flown on three missions the first in 1994 as the pilot on Mission STS-68 to study the Earthrsquos surface the second in 1996 as the pilot for the fourth ShuttlendashMir docking mission STS-79 and the third in 1998 as the commander of Mission STS-89 the eighth docking mission548

23 July NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had found the youngest cluster of stars ever observed in a galaxy near the Milky Way The baby stars were ldquoenveloped in a cloud of luminous gasesrdquo in the galaxy known as the Small Magellanic Cloud about 200000 light-years from Earth The HST had discovered the 50 new stars each 300000 times as bright as the Sun ldquoconcentrated in a region only 10 light-years across in a cloud known as N81rdquo Before the capture of the HSTrsquos high-resolution images astronomers had referred to the area as The Blob549

NASA announced that engineers had repaired the malfunctioning data transmission systems aboard Galileo Although both subsystems were ldquoworking redundantly as they had been designed to dordquo it would be up to a week before the probe could resume transmitting scientific data to Earth Project engineers believed that debris had short-circuited a signal line causing computer resets550

Two competing teams using NASArsquos Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) discovered the first known accretion-powered millisecond pulsar The scientists believed the pulsar to be the missing link between two known types of stars 1) ldquoold accreting neutron stars which are powerful sources of [x]-rays generated from the material they are gobbling up from their companionsrdquo and 2) even older ldquoradiowave emitting pulsars that are rotating very rapidly and slowing down graduallyrdquo Because the new star designated SAX J18084-3658 was both emitting x-rays and spinning rapidly scientists believed it was the link between the accreting and the radiowaveshy

547 NASA ldquoStatement of NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin on the Death of Alan Shepardrdquo news release 98128 22 July 1998 NASA ldquoAlan Shepard First American Astronaut Dies at 74rdquo news release 98-131 22 July 1998 Federal Document Clearing House ldquoJohn Glenn Remarks on Alan Shepardrdquo government news release 22 July 1998 Paul Hoversten ldquoShepardrsquos Ride Lifted USA into the Space Agerdquo USA Today 23 July 1998 Jennifer Harper ldquoAlan Shepard First American in Space Dies at 74 lsquoPioneerrsquos Pioneerrsquo also Led Apollo 14 Golfed on Moonrdquo Washington Times 23 July 1998 548 NASA ldquoAstronaut Wilcutt Replaces Halsell in Star City Russiardquo news release 98-127 22 July 1998 549 NASA ldquoNearby Star Cluster Yields Insights into Early Universerdquo news release 98-132 23 July 1998 Washington Times ldquoHubble Telescope Finds Family of Starsrdquo 24 July 1998 New York Times ldquoGenesis in a Cosmic Firestormrdquo 28 July 1998 550 Agence France-Presse ldquoNASA Repairs Galileo Probersquos Glitchrdquo 24 July 1998 Associated Press ldquoSpacecraft Galileo Working Againrdquo 24 July 1998

155

shy


emitting neutron stars Michiel van der Klis and Rudy Wijnands of the University of Amsterdam found the new pulsarmdashcalled the ldquoHoly Grail of X-ray astronomyrdquomdashand measured the time between its rapid x-ray pulses to derive its rotation rate Van der Klis explained that based on the fact of accretion astrophysicists had long theorized that millisecond pulsars existed but this was the first time that one had been ldquocaught in the actrdquo Accretion the process of drawing gas from a nearby ldquocompanionrdquo star causes pulsars to heat up emitting x-rays After accretion ends high-velocity beams of subatomic particles continue to ldquoblow material off the companionrdquo eventually causing the companion to vanish Deepto Chakrabarty and Edward H Morgan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology led the team that found the pulsarrsquos 2-hour orbital period measured the orbit and inferred the presence of the companion star Tod E Strohmayer a member of the RXTE team at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center suggested ldquo[x]-ray and particle beam ablation may explain why millisecond pulsars are often found alone despite the fact that they required a companion star to speed uprdquo Pulsars ldquovaporizerdquo their companions thus hiding the evidence which is as Strohmayer described it the ldquostellar version of the perfect crimerdquo551

27 July NASA announced that astronomers had located the ldquowaywardrdquo SOHO satellite after losing radio contact on 24 June when a programming error on the ground caused its solar panels to switch positions Two US radio telescopes had located the satellite rotating slowly near its original position approximately 1 million miles (16 million kilometers) from Earth Engineers had calculated its exact location after NASArsquos Deep Space Network in Goldstone California ldquointercepted the echo of a radio signal transmitted by the giant radio telescope of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center in Arecibo Puerto Ricordquo The spacecraftrsquos slow rotation on its axis indicated that it had incurred only minor damage and that its solar panels would soon face the Sun again552

29 July Aaron A Crayford and Cody Grosskopf the two Cloverdale California teenagers accused of hacking into military and government computers in January and February 1998 pled guilty to federal hacking charges The US Attorneyrsquos Office recommended probation and strict restrictions on the boysrsquo computer use and modem access Crayford and Grosskopf had reportedly hacked into US government Web sites including the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory the Naval Undersea Warfare Center the Naval Postgraduate School NOAA NASA the US Air Force and Pearl Harbor naval base Web sites of foreign governments Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates and Web sites of a number of universities including the University of California at Berkeley the University of California at Santa Barbara the University of California at Los Angeles the University of California at Davis California Polytechnic Institute Columbia University and Harvard University553

551 NASA ldquoNewly Discovered Stellar Cannibal Provides Missing Linkrdquo news release 98-129 22 July 1998 Rudy Wijnands and Michiel van der Klis ldquoA Millisecond Pulsar in an X-ray Binary Systemrdquo Nature 394 no 6691 (23 July 1998) 344ndash346 Deepto Chakrabarty and Edward H Morgan ldquoThe Two-Hour Orbit of a Binary Millisecond X-ray Pulsarrdquo Nature 394 no 6691 (23 July 1998) 346ndash348 552 Agence France-Presse ldquoUS-European Satellite Located by Engineersrdquo 28 July 1998 553 Jody Kleinberg ldquoCloverdale Hackers Plead Guilty Probation Recommended for 2 Teensrdquo Press Democrat (Santa Rosa CA) 30 July 1998

156


The US House of Representatives voted 323 to 109 against an amendment sponsored by Representative Timothy J Roemer (D-IN) which would have eliminated the ISS program before the launch of the first pieces of the laboratory into orbit Commenting on the hundreds of thousands of pounds of hardware already constructed Representative David Weldon Jr (R-FL) remarked that ldquoto pull the plug now seemed inappropriate to a lot of peoplerdquo Despite bad news throughout the past year requiring NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin to visit Capitol Hill repeatedly to discuss cost overruns and delays the vote was the ldquostrongest endorsement ever for the stationrdquo The station had survived by only one vote in 1993 the year President William J Clinton had ldquoreorganized the project and invited Russia to join the international consortiumrdquo and to build the laboratory554

NASA announced completion of qualification tests of the first wing assembly for its X-34 technology demonstrator explaining that the prime contractor Orbital Sciences Corporation had integrated the wing assembly with the test articlersquos fuselage marking a major milestone in the

555program

30 July NASA announced the selection of veteran cosmonaut Sergei K Krikalev for the crew of Mission STS-88 the first American ISS assembly mission In December 1998 Krikalev would join aboard Endeavour Commander Robert D Cabana Pilot Frederick W ldquoRickrdquo Sturckow and Mission Specialists Nancy J Currie Jerry L Ross and James H Newman NASA had assigned Mission STS-88 the task of attaching the US-built Unity module to the Russian-built Zarya control module scheduled to launch in November 1998 Krikalev had been a member of two Mir space station crews and had flown aboard the Space Shuttle as a member of the Mission STS-60 crew in February 1994 During Mission STS-60 Krikalev had operated the robotic arm and supported a variety of experiments in materials science556

31 July Kenneth J Szalai ended his 34-year NASA career to join IBP Aerospace Group Inc as the companyrsquos president and chief operating officer In his last position at NASA Szalai was Director of Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) in Edwards California Szalai had directed DFRC since December 1990 Before becoming the Centerrsquos director Szalai had been head of the research engineering division at DFRC for eight years NASA had awarded Szalai an internationally recognized expert on flight control and flight systems the Exceptional Service Medal in recognition of his work on the first Digital Fly-by-Wire aircraft He had also received NASArsquos Outstanding Leadership Medal during his NASA tenure NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin appointed Kevin L Petersen Acting Director of DFRC effective 1 August557

AUGUST 1998

1 August

554 Tamara Lytle ldquoNASArsquos lsquoFloating Lemonrsquo Gets Sweet House Boostrdquo Chicago Tribune 30 July 1998 555 NASA ldquoX-34 Completes Critical Milestonerdquo news release 98-136 29 July 1998 556 NASA ldquoFuture Space Station Resident Joins Assembly Crewrdquo news release 98-137 30 July 1998 557 Jim Skeen ldquoDryden Director To Leave NASA for Private Sectorrdquo Los Angeles Daily News 11 July 1998

157


NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration announced the winners of the 1998 National General Aviation Design Competition in which undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at US engineering schools ldquoparticipating in a major national effort to rebuild the US general aviation sectorrdquo compete individually or as teams A 27-member undergraduate team from Virginia Polytechnic Institute won first place for its design called VicTor a single-engine four-seat high-performance aircraft VicTorrsquos special design elements included an ergonomic cockpit with adjustable side-control sticks and dual airbags a choice between two high-performance engines and advanced technology instrument displays The design also included an upgrade option ldquoto allow autonomous flight if it becomes a realityrdquo A 15-member Pennsylvania State University team won second place for their high-performance two-person single-engine composite-fuselage tractor-prop light airplane Third place went to 13 undergraduate students from the University of Virginia for their computer program predicting drag in the design of new small passenger airplanes558

3 August The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite out of contact with ground controllers since 25 June responded to signals sent by NASArsquos Deep Space Tracking Network antennas in Canberra Australia Although the signals contained no data SOHO transmitted a series of short radio bursts indicating to space scientists that the craft was still able to receive ground commands and therefore that they might still have a chance of salvaging it559

7 August NASA announced that Boeing Companyrsquos cost overruns for the International Space Station (ISS) had increased by about 30 percent to US$783 million and that NASA intended to ldquofurther cut the companyrsquos bonus feesrdquo In reporting to NASA the latest cost overruns Boeing had explained that ldquocontinued production and testing and the need to set aside money for contingenciesrdquo had caused the latest increase US$183 million more than the US$600 million previously estimated Under the terms of NASArsquos cost-plus-fee contract Boeing would lose an additional US$275 million in bonus fees besides the US$78 million reduction that NASA had imposed560

8 August Following ground control efforts during recent weeks to partially recharge the spacecraftrsquos batteries SOHO successfully transmitted telemetry data to NASArsquos Deep Space Tracking Station at Goldstone California The 1-minute burst of data contained information about SOHOrsquos temperature and the state of some of its electrical systems damaged by the extreme cold The data also indicated that ground control had successfully recharged one of the two batteries The spacecraft remained in the L-1 Langrangian point in space which is a point 1 million miles (16 million kilometers) away from Earth where gravity forces are stable and ldquoan object will not change its position relative to the Earthrdquo561

558 NASA ldquoNASA and FAA Announce Design Competition Winnersrdquo news release 98-140 1 August 1998 559 NASA ldquoSOHO Spacecraft Contactedrdquo news release 98-145 4 August 1998 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoContact Re-established with Wayward Satelliterdquo 4 August 1998 560 Seattle Times (WA) ldquoBoeing Reports More Space Station Overrunsrdquo 7 August 1998 561 NASA ldquoNew Information from SOHO Increases Chances for Recoveryrdquo news release 98-149 11 August 1998 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoSOHO Sun Satellite Comes to Life Brieflyrdquo 12 August 1998 Associated Press ldquoFresh Signals from Crippled Satellite Revive Hope for Sun-Studying Missionrdquo 13 August 1998

158


11 August Hughes Electronics Corporation concluded its investigation into the 19 May failure of PanAmSatrsquos Galaxy IV satellite and the similar problems that later had affected two other satellites Metallic crystals growing in space ldquoless than the width of a human hairrdquo had caused tin-plated electrical switches to short disabling navigational devices that kept the satellites oriented toward Earth-based controllers However the investigation had failed to uncover the source of the failure of Galaxy IVrsquos backup system which led to the widespread blackout on 19 May562

12 August A US Air Force Titan IV rocket carrying a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office of the Pentagon exploded 1 minute after liftoff from Cape Canaveral Florida More than 20 stories high and weighing nearly 2 million pounds (907000 kilograms) the Lockheed Martinndashbuilt Titan IV was the largest crewless rocket used in the United States The rocket used solid-fuel boosters similar to those used to launch NASArsquos Space Shuttle The explosion destroyed about US$13 billion worth of hardware making it one of the worst American rocket-launch failures to date The rocket was about 20000 feet (6100 meters) above the Atlantic when it exploded and the ocean carried the debris and toxic substances away from land This was the second time a Titan IV had exploded during launch the first explosion occurred in 1993563

13 August A Soyuz TM-28 spacecraft blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying the penultimate crew of the Russian space station Mir The three-member crew was composed of former presidential defense adviser Yuri M Baturin Flight Commander Sergei V Avdeyev and Engineer Gennady I Padalka564 Baturin was the first Russian bureaucrat to travel into space and his inclusion in the mission attracted ldquounusually heavy Russian media coveragerdquo The former Kremlin adviser had trained alongside professional cosmonauts passing all examinations Earlier in the year President Boris N Yeltsin had fired space physicist Baturin without an explanation and Baturin had focused since then on training for the mission to Mir565

As part of an overall restructuring the Boeing Company announced plans to reduce its workforce by 12 percent over the next 18 months through the layoffs of as many as 28000 workers Much of the restructuring plan focused on the companyrsquos commercial airplane business affecting those workers who were once part of McDonnell Douglas Corporation which Boeing had purchased in 1997 In contrast the company reported it was making strides in its defense and space work566

18 August

562 Aaron Pressman for Reuters ldquoTiny Crystals Waylaid Satellites Hughes Saysrdquo 11 August 1998 563 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoRocket Explosionrdquo 12 August 1998 Kathy Sawyer and William Harwood ldquoRocket Explodes Destroying Spy Satelliterdquo Washington Post 13 August 1998 564 Mikhail Metzel for Associated Press ldquoNext Mission Blasts Off for Mir Space Stationrdquo 13 August 1998 565 Shavkat Rakhmatullayev for Reuters ldquoRussia Blasts First Bureaucrat into Spacerdquo 13 August 1998 Associated Press ldquoMir Mission Under Way Despite Russian Economic Troublesrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 14 August 1998 566 Tim Smart ldquoBoeing To Retool Lay Off Thousands Condit Cites Need To Reduce Costsrdquo Washington Post 14 August 1998

159


NASA awarded Aerojet a GenCorp Inc company a US$164 million contract to provide a de-orbit propulsion stage for the X-38 technology demonstrator vehicle The contract for design development manufacture test and delivery of one propulsion stage for the first X-38 spaceflight test included a second option for five operational propulsion units for the crew return vehicle (CRV) if NASA selected the X-38 design for the CRV Engineers at Dryden Flight Research Center were flight-testing the X-38 a prototype spacecraft intended to lead to the development and construction of a CRV for the ISS567

20 August A fire that started in a shed containing an air compressor spread to another building of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) causing extensive damage No one was injured and firefighters were able to stop the blaze before it reached laboratories containing hazardous and flammable materials Fire investigators had not determined the cause of the fire NASA did not permit the investigators to survey the damage immediately because of sensitive material housed in the affected building568

21 August Phillip Z Tapper emergency coordinator for NASArsquos GSFC announced that exposure to smoke and water during the previous dayrsquos fire had damaged parts of two spacecraft Tapper said that engineers had not yet determined the exact damage to the heat protection panels which they were planning to install in the Hubble Space Telescope and another spacecraft569

NASA and US Air Force officials announced the hiring of Space Gateway Support of Herndon Virginia to run base operations at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Patrick Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Johnson Controls and EGampG Florida at KSC had previously held base-operations contracts at the military bases The new joint base-operationsshysupport contract was worth US$1 billion for five years with the option to renew for another five years In consolidating the contracts the agencies intended to cut costs According to officials continuing separate base-operations contracts would have cost 30 percent more Other primary customers under the contract included government contractors for NASA and US Air Force spaceflight operations payload ground operations life sciences expendable vehicles and launch operations and support570

Fritz Haber a German engineer recruited after World War II to work on the American space program died at the age of 86 in Connecticut An aeronautical engineer Haber developed a way to simulate a gravity-free environment by flying a plane in a roller-coaster pattern NASA first used this simulation to train the astronauts in the Apollo program Before coming to the United States Haber had developed a way to transport missiles by piggybacking them on another aircraft Engineers had never used his piggyback design during World War II but NASA had

567 Defense Daily ldquoAerojet Wins $164 NASA Contract for X-38 Propulsionrdquo 20 August 1998 568 Associated Press ldquoNASA Firerdquo 20 August 1998 569 Associated Press ldquoNASA Fire Damages Spacecraft Partsrdquo 21 August 1998 570 NASA ldquoSGS Awarded NASA and Air Force Joint Base Contractrdquo contract announcement C98-m 21 August 1998 Joni James ldquoBase Operations Under 1 Contractrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 22 August 1998

160


implemented his idea carrying the Space Shuttle on a modified Boeing 747 from its landing site in California back to its launch site in Florida571

25 August Cosmonauts Talgat A Musabayev and Nikolai M Budarin returned to Earth from a 207-day sojourn aboard Mir along with former Kremlin aide Yuri M Baturin who had accompanied the cosmonautsrsquo replacements to the space station spending 12 days in space The two cosmonauts arrived in Russia to find a devalued ruble and the return of Viktor S Chernomyrdin as Acting Prime Minister Russian President Boris N Yeltsin had not yet fired Chernomyrdinrsquos government at the time Musabayev and Budarin left for Mir and the two cosmonauts had missed the entire four-month term of Prime Minister Sergei V Kiriyenko Yeltsin had dissolved Kiriyenkorsquos government the week before the cosmonautsrsquo return flight to Earth Because Yeltsin had devalued the ruble the two cosmonauts also found that their pay had diminished572

26 August The newly developed Delta III rocket exploded during liftoff destroying the Galaxy X communications satellite it was carrying into orbit The launch was the maiden flight of Boeingrsquos newest version of the Delta rocket designed to carry 8400 pounds (3800 kilograms) twice the payload of the previous version573

27 August NASA announced the arrival of international astronaut candidates at Johnson Space Center where they began training as members of the 1998 astronaut class The international candidates from Brazil Canada France Germany and Italy were Leacuteopold Eyharts Paolo A Nespoli Hans W Schlegel and Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency Bjarni V Tryggvason of the Canadian Space Agency and Marco C Pontes of the Brazilian Space Agency574

SEPTEMBER 1998

2 September Pentagon officials announced that on 12 August a split-second power outage had caused a Titan IV rocket to explode while launching a secret spy satellite into space A battery powering the guidance system had failed interrupting the flow of electricity for a fraction of a second After the restoration of battery power the guidance control system had sent a command causing the rocket to pitch down and to the right while traveling at 675 miles (1100 kilometers) per hour at 17000 feet (5200 meters) The rocket had begun to break up and the malfunction had triggered the automatic destruct system In addition when it had begun to explode range safety officers had sent the rocket destruct commands to ensure it would not threaten the coastal population575

3 September

571 Ford Burkhart ldquoFritz Haber 86 Dies Simulated Weightlessness of Spacerdquo New York Times 29 August 1998 572 Reuters ldquoThree Russian Cosmonauts Return Safely to Earthrdquo 25 August 1998 Shavkat Rakhmatullayev for Reuters ldquoRussiarsquos Orbiting Bureaucrat Returns to Earthrdquo 25 August 1998 573 Seth Schiesel ldquoNew Type of Rocket To Carry Satellites Explodes in Liftoffrdquo New York Times 27 August 1998 574 NASA ldquoInternational Candidates Join 1998 Astronaut Classrdquo news release 98-155 27 August 1998 575 Todd Halversen ldquoTitan 4 Blast Blamed on Brief Battery Power Outagerdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 3 September 1998

161


The investigation board of engineers and officials from NASA and the European Space Agency released their final report determining how controllers had lost communication with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite on 24 June The boardrsquos findings presented at a joint news conference held in Washington DC and Paris concluded that no anomalies existed on the spacecraft the loss of SOHO ldquowas a direct result of operational errors a failure to monitor the status of the spacecraft adequately and the use of insufficiently tested rescue proceduresrdquo However the board emphasized that no single cause or particular person was responsible for the incident576

NASA announced that Lunar Prospectorrsquos gamma-ray spectrometer had returned data about the Moonrsquos elemental composition Scientists had used the data to develop the first global maps delineating compositional variations of thorium potassium and iron ore over the lunar surface The maps provided insights into how the Moonrsquos crust had developed Prospectorrsquos magnetometer and electron-reflectometer data indicated that the Moon contained magnetized rocks on its upper surface which had created the two smallest known magnetospheres in the solar system The craftrsquos Doppler gravity experiment had enabled scientists to develop the ldquofirst precise gravity map of the entire lunar surfacerdquo showing seven previously unknown lava-filled craters which cause gravitational anomalies NASA also announced that Lunar Prospector had supplied additional evidence of water-ice deposits on both poles of the Moon577

4 September NASA awarded contracts to Boeing Information Space and Defense Systems Kelly Space and Technology Lockheed Martin Astronautics and Orbital Sciences Corporation Space Access The five contracting companies would study ways that NASA could meet its requirements for human spaceflight at a lower cost The studies would examine three scenarios 1) keeping the Shuttle operational until 2020 2) replacing the Shuttle when it was cost-effective to do so and 3) developing an alternative plan in case NASArsquos funding remained at FY 1999 levels578

The journal Science published data gathered from NASArsquos Lunar Prospector indicating the presence of hydrogen often bundled as water molecules on the north and south poles of the Moon Alan B Binder Chief Scientist for the Lunar Prospector mission explained that the spacecraft had detected an abundance of hydrogen and that the science team had interpreted the data to mean that the Moon has 1ndash10 billion tons (910ndash9100 kilograms or 09ndash91 billion tonnes) of water In a previous mission to the Moon to collect data the spacecraft Clementine had found radar indications of water on the Moonrsquos south pole Paul D Spudis a member of the Clementine science team remarked that Prospectorrsquos discovery was significant because ldquothe presence of lunar water has been confirmed by two different research methodsrdquo579

576 Warren E Leary ldquoSatellite To Study Sun Is Reviving from Deadrdquo New York Times 4 September 1998 577 NASA ldquoLatest Lunar Prospector Findings Indicate Larger Amounts of Polar Water Icerdquo news release 98-158 3 September 1998 578 NASA ldquoNASA Contracts for Future Space Transportation Studiesrdquo news release c98-n 4 September 1998 Defense Daily ldquoNASA Awards Future Space Transport Study Contractsrdquo 8 September 1999 579 D J Lawrence et al ldquoGlobal Elemental Maps and the Moon The Lunar Prospector Gamma-Ray Spectrometerrdquo Science 281 no 5382 (4 September 1998) 1484ndash1489 Reuters ldquoProspector Finds Water on Moon NASA Spacecraft Locates Ice at the North and South Polesrdquo Washington Times 4 September 1998 Associated Press ldquoMan in the Moon May Have Plenty To Drink Abundance of Water Likely Scientists Foresee Colonizationrdquo Chicago Tribune 4 September 1998

162


8 September Boeing successfully launched from a California launch site five satellites for the Iridium World Communications network aboard a Delta II rocket The Delta II launched two weeks after the ldquodisastrous maiden flightrdquo of the new Delta III rocket which had exploded during liftoff Officials announced on 5 September that a problem with the rocketrsquos control system had caused the explosion but that they had not yet determined the exact chain of events The five satellites launched aboard the Delta II rocket replaced satellites that had malfunctioned and could not be included in the Iridium telecommunications constellation580

9 September A Zenit rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan failed when a computer error caused a premature engine shutdown during the second-stage burn The rocket fell crashing in Siberia The rocketrsquos failure destroyed 12 of Globalstar Incrsquos communications satellites581

10 September Ghassem R Asrar NASA Associate Administrator for Earth Science Enterprise testified before the US House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics about budget concerns and delays associated with the Earth Observing System program House Subcommittee Chairperson Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) had called the hearing to discuss numerous delays in NASArsquos Earth Science Enterprise missions Asrar explained the reasons for the delays indicating that NASA would work with Raytheon Systems to deliver a scaled-back data system within budget in time to support two delayed missions Subcommittee member Representative David Weldon Jr (RshyFL) ldquoquestioned the legitimacy of NASArsquos ownership of the Earth Science programrdquo suggesting that a different agency such as the National Academy of Sciences or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should manage the program Weldon also questioned whether scientists would be able to make use of the vast amount of data they expected the program to generate Robert S Winokur NOAArsquos Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services assured subcommittee members that scientists would be able to use the information Winokur was responsible for coordinating NOAArsquos joint efforts with NASA to archive and retrieve environmental data582

NASA announced that Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) had selected Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space of Sunnyvale California and TRW Inc Space and Electronics Group of Redondo Beach California as industry team members for the Space Interferometry Mission The Interferometry Mission would measure the precise location of stars and search for planets orbiting nearby stars The two contracts which together exceeded US$200 million included mission formulation and implementation583

580 Justin Ray ldquoDelta 2 Lifts Five Satellites into Orbitrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 9 September 1998 581 Pavel Polityuk for Reuters ldquoUkraine Appeals for Rocket Launch amid Kazakh Rowrdquo 13 July 1999 Globalstar Chronology 13 July 1999 httpwwwastronautixcomcraftglolstarhtm (accessed 6 August 2008) 582 Brian Berger ldquoEarth Science Faces Hurdles NASA To Forfeit Data Capabilities To Put Key Program on Trackrdquo Space News 14ndash20 September 1998 583 NASA ldquoContractors Chosen for Space Interferometry Missionrdquo news release 98-162 10 September 1998

163


11 September NASA researchers released images and temperature readings collected by Mars Global Surveyor The images revealed that the Martian moon Phobos is covered in a layer of dust at least 3 feet (09 meters) deep the result of the impact of meteoroids occurring over millions of years Surveyorrsquos thermal emission spectrometer revealed that on Phobos the temperature changes from -170ordmF to -25ordmF (-112ordmC to -32ordmC) between night and day Scientists explained that dust accounts for some of the moonrsquos drastic temperature change because Phobos does not have an atmosphere enabling it to trap heat Therefore the surfacersquos small particles have only 7 hours to absorb heat from the Sun losing heat rapidly after sunset Images of landslides on steep crater slopes indicated that Phobosrsquos gravity even at just 11000th of that of Earth is sufficient to pull objects downward584

NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin appointed Arthur G Stephenson President of Oceaneering Advanced Technologies as the new Director of Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville Alabama MSFCrsquos previous director had retired in January and at that time NASA had appointed MSFCrsquos Deputy Director Carolyn S Griner as Acting Director of the Center Before his tenure at Oceaneering Advanced Technologies Stephenson had worked 28 years for TRW Inc of California His last position was as Director of TRW Incrsquos Space Transportation and Servicing Advanced Programs During his 34-year career Stephenson had worked on various projects related to MSFC including the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle during the 1970s and 1980s the Gamma Ray Observatory automated rendezvous and docking and the space-welding inspection extravehicular-activity tool He had also directed the International Space Station (ISS) robotic-system engineering support to the Boeing Company585

Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Science Wesley T Huntress Jr announced the selection of two small spacecraft to undertake the first missions of NASArsquos University-class Explorers program designed to ldquoprovide frequent flight opportunities for highly focused and relatively inexpensive science missionsrdquo NASA had selected the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer spacecraft to study the ldquoLocal Bubblerdquo a cloud of hot gas surrounding the solar system and extending approximately 300 light-years from the Sun NASA selected the Inner Magnetosphere Explorer to study how Earthrsquos Van Allen radiation belts respond to variations in the solar wind NASA had scheduled both missions for 2001586

14 September At a ceremony marking its official opening Virginia Governor James S Gilmore III announced that Reston-based DynCorp was the first major investor in the Commercial Spaceport Launch Pad at Virginia Space Flight Center on Wallops Island the nationrsquos third commercial spaceport The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority a collaborative effort of the state the Center for Innovative Technology at Old Dominion University in Virginia NASA and private industry had developed the communications facility located at one end of NASArsquos Wallops Flight Facility The spaceport was one of 18 sites competing to launch the VentureStarTM a privately

584 NASA ldquoMartian Moon Phobos Hip-Deep in Powderrdquo news release 98-164 11 September 1998 Jane E Allen for Associated Press ldquoMartian Moonrdquo 12 September 1998 585 NASA ldquoArthur Stephenson Named To Head Marshall Space Flight Centerrdquo revised news release 98-163a 11 September 1998 Space News ldquoMarshall Gets Director After Eight-Month Waitrdquo 14ndash20 September 1998 586 NASA ldquoNASA Selects First University-Class Explorersrdquo news release 98-165 11 September 1998

164


owned space plane still in development which could eventually carry construction materials to the ISS587

16 September NASA regained control over SOHO and after successfully thawing the craftrsquos fuel determined that its rocket thrusters were useable NASA spokesperson William A Steigerwald of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) explained that flight controllers would check each individual system and instrument next and would then reestablish full automatic gyroscopic control588

Scientists studying images taken by NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft announced in a joint teleconference with Cornell University and NASArsquos JPL that Jupiterrsquos rings appeared to consist of dust created in the course of millions of years as asteroids and comets crashed into the four small moons nearest the planetrsquos surface⎯Metis Adrastea Amalthea and Thebe The images captured during several hours in November 1996 when Galileo was able to observe the rings lit up by the Sun had provided ldquounprecedented details of the tiny dust particlesrdquo Furthermore scientists observed that in the images ldquothe three rings stopped abruptly at different moonsrdquo Images from a second flyby in September 1997 had confirmed that ldquothe depths of the three rings matched the depths of the moonsrsquo orbitsrdquo and that material in the rings ldquomatched the dark red dust on the moonsrsquo surfacerdquo The scientists said that more moons than rings exist because some of the moons supply dust to more than one ring589

21 September NASA announced that California Institute of Technology would continue to manage and operate NASArsquos JPL under a new five-year contract valued at US$625 billion The contract would support such programs as the Mars Global Surveyor robotic exploration program the Cassini mission to Saturn NASA Origins Program missions including the Space Infrared Telescope Facility Earth-Observing spacecraft and the Deep Space Network of communications antennas590

25 September NASA awarded its combined space operations contract to Lockheed Martin covering operations at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville Alabama and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California The contract worth US$19 billion for the first five years with a five-year renewal worth an additional US$15 billion covered the cost of directing monitoring and downloading data from spacecraft NASA

587 Sonja Barisic ldquoFirm Gives a Big Boost to Spaceportrdquo Roanoke Times (VA) 15 September 1998 Karen Jolly Davis ldquo$45 Million Contribution Gives Wallops Island Spaceport a Boostrdquo Virginian Pilot and the Ledger-Star (Norfolk VA) 15 September 1998 588 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoSolar Probe Back Under Controlrdquo 17 September 1998 589 NASA ldquoGalileo Finds Jupiterrsquos Rings Formed by Dust Blasted Off Small Moonsrdquo news release 98-167 15 September 1998 New York Times ldquoNew Images Clear Up a Jupiter Mystery Its Rings Are Just Dustrdquo 16 September 1998 Dennis Cauchon ldquoScientists Solve Mystery of Jupiterrsquos Rings Pictures Suggest Asteroid Impacts Stirred Moon Dustrdquo USA Today 16 September 1998 590 NASA ldquoNASA Awards New Contract for Operation of Jet Propulsion Laboratoryrdquo news release C98-o 21 September 1998

165


estimated that the contract consolidating work previously done under 17 separate contracts would save US$14 billion over 10 years591

29 September NASA announced that an intense wave of gamma rays emanating from a magnetar 20000 light-years away from Earth had struck Earthrsquos atmosphere on 27 August Stanford University professor Umran Inan remarked that the occurrence which had a measurable effect on Earth was extremely rare since the event occurred outside the solar system The radiation wave was ldquoso powerful that it blasted sensitive detectors to maximum or off scale on at least seven scientific spacecraft in Earth-orbit and around the solar systemrdquo592

OCTOBER 1998

1 October On NASArsquos 40th anniversary President of the Space Frontier Foundation Richard N Tumlinson and NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin spoke before the US House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics about space exploration and the possibility of privatizing space ventures Tumlinsonrsquos organization advocated limiting NASArsquos role to supporting technology and research programs He proposed commercializing the Shuttle fleet and privatizing NASA field centers to reduce the costs of space exploration and eventual colonization Goldin advocated reducing costs as well but did not respond to Tumlinsonrsquos proposals He also outlined new technologies that NASA was developing to cut the cost of rockets and satellites Goldin remarked that NASA ldquowould form partnerships with industry for lsquocutting-edge research developmentrsquordquo also emphasizing NASArsquos support of government loans to fuel the growth of the space industry in the United States593

2 October NASA and Russian Space Agency officials announced that Russia had agreed to sell research time aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for US$60 million with payment dependent on the Russian agencyrsquos completion of critical milestones The ISS collaborators including representatives of the 16 countries participating in the ISS program had reached the agreement during a week of meetings in Moscow Russia had missed three target dates because of insufficient funds The deal part of NASArsquos efforts to bail out its partner and to ldquoprevent costly new delaysrdquo in the construction and launch of the ISS did not release Russia from its obligations to build the service module As the Moscow meeting concluded NASA officials also announced that the launches of the first ISS components the Zarya and Unity modules remained on

591 NASA ldquoLockheed Martin Space Operations Co Awarded Contract To Manage NASArsquos Space Operationsrdquo contract announcement c98-p 25 September 1998 Peter Behr ldquoLockheed Team Wins NASA Contract $34 Billion Big Beats Out Boeingrdquo Washington Post 26 September 1998 Anna Wilde Mathews ldquoLockheed Group Wins NASA Pact for $344 Billionrdquo Wall Street Journal 28 September 1998 592 NASA ldquoTremendous Gamma-Ray Flare Blasts Earthrdquo news release 98-172 29 September 1998 593 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoUPI Science Newsrdquo 2 October 1998 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoNASA Urged To Sell Shuttlesrdquo 1 October 1998

166


schedule and that the international partners had agreed to reconvene to refine the ISS assembly sequence at the launch of the Unity module from Kennedy Space Center (KSC)594

5 October Pursuant to H Res 572 the US House of Representatives agreed to an amended version of HR 1702 the Commercial Space Act of 1998595 The legislation gave the Federal Aviation Administration the authority to issue licenses to private companies for the launch of reusable space vehicles like NASArsquos Shuttle Supporters of the measure stressed that enactment of the law would ldquobetter enable American companies to compete in an increasingly competitive international marketplacerdquo warning that without this law the United States would risk losing the space industry to overseas markets The legislation also required NASA to submit a report and an independently conducted market study to Congress identifying commercial opportunities and evaluating commercial interest in the development of the ISS596

George W Lewis Jr NASA aeronautical engineer and son of George W Lewis former research director of NASArsquos predecessor agency the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics died at his home at the age of 81 He had worked for 30 years in Cleveland Ohio at Lewis Research Center which NASA had named for his father597

6 October The Russian government agreed to pay a US$445 million debt to the Russian Space Agency to ensure that the agency would be able to complete a long-delayed component of the new space station Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev said that the government had agreed to pay the debt in three installments in October November and December598

7 October US Representative F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) convened a hearing before the House Committee on Science and Technology to discuss NASArsquos request for an additional US$60 million to purchase hardware from Russia for the ISS over and above the US$12 billion in space-related funds already paid to Russia NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin indicated that the additional funding was essential and that without it the program would risk termination Sensenbrenner refused to support approval of the funding without a detailed explanation from US Department of State and White House officials of why the program needed additional funds Sensenbrenner had asked Jacob Lew of the Office of Management and Budget and Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to speak at the hearing but both failed to appear Sensenbrenner said he could not ldquogo along with NASArsquos request to start bailing out the Russian

594 NASA ldquoStatement Following Conclusion of Moscow Meetingsrdquo news release 98-176 2 October 1998 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoRussian Space Agency Makes Salerdquo 5 October 1998 William J Broad ldquoTo Buy Some Time Russia To Sell US Some Time in Spacerdquo New York Times 5 October 1998 595 On 28 October 1998 Congress enacted HR 1702 into law with Pub L No 105-303 the Commercial Space Act of 1998 596 Jim Abrams for Associated Press ldquoHouse Bills Help Federal Workersrdquo 5 October 1998 Associated Press ldquoHouse Sends Senate Bill To Allow Private Space Launchesrdquo 5 October 1998 597 Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH) ldquoGeorge W Lewis 81 Was An Engineer at NASArdquo 9 October 1998 598 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoRussian Government To Pay $445 Mln Debt to Space Agencyrdquo 6 October 1998

167


space programrdquo stating that he had seen no convincing evidence that either NASA or the White House or Russia ldquowould make good use of the moneyrdquo599

8 October NASA announced that a long-exposure infrared image taken with a camera on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had uncovered the most distant galaxies ever seen HSTrsquos Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) had detected galaxies that might be over 12 billion light-years away depending on which cosmological models scientists used NASArsquos Acting Associate Administrator for Space Science Edward J Weiler deemed the discovery a major step toward fulfilling one of HSTrsquos key objectives to search for the ldquofaintest and farthest objects in the universerdquo600

13 October NASA announced that two of its research pilots had been the first Americans to fly a modified Russian Tu-144 supersonic jetliner participating in three evaluation flights over a two-week period during mid-to-late September at Zhukovsky Air Development Center near Moscow Pilots Robert Rivers of Langley Research Center and C Gordon Fullerton of Dryden Flight Research Center had flown the jetliner as part of a jointly funded activity under the auspices of NASArsquos High-Speed Research Program and the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group The purpose of the test flights was to gain operational experience and experimental flight data to develop an ldquoenvironmentally friendly second-generation supersonic transportrdquo in the United States601

14 October NASA announced that it had restructured and renamed its Office of Aeronautics and Space Transportation Technology known as Code R appointing retired US Air Force Lieutenant General Spence M Armstrong to head the newly reorganized Office of Aero-Space Technology NASArsquos spokesperson said that NASArsquos management had created three new divisions within the Office⎯Goals Programs and Institutions⎯to help NASA achieve its goals Major goals included accessing space more cheaply with reusable launch vehicle programs creating greater synergy between aeronautics and space transportation technology decreasing aircraft accident rates while tripling the nationrsquos aviation-system capacity diminishing aircraft noise and emissions and reducing the cost of air travel and the cost of placing payloads in orbit The role of the Goals Division would be to implement the challenging development of new technologies that of the Programs Division would be to manage the various programs within the Office and the Institutions Division would oversee ldquoinstitutional problems at the field centersrdquo602

20 October NASA officials announced that US Senator John H Glenn Jr would not participate in the melatonin portion of a sleep study planned for the upcoming Shuttle mission The studyrsquos

599 Paul Recer ldquoAngry Congressman Threatens To Withhold Space Station Moneyrdquo San Diego Union-Tribune (CA) 8 October 1998 600 NASA ldquoHubble Goes to the Limit in Search of Farthest Galaxiesrdquo news release 98-179 8 October 1998 601 NASA ldquoNASA Pilots Fly Russian Tu-144LL Flying Laboratoryrdquo news release 98-186 13 October 1998 602 NASA ldquoAeronautics Enterprise Reorganizes and Changes Namerdquo news release 98-187 14 October Aerospace Daily ldquoNASA Renames Reorganizes Code R under Armstrongrdquo 15 October 1998

168


principal investigator Charles A Czeisler of Brigham and Womenrsquos Hospital in Boston said that Glenn had failed to meet one of the medical criteria for the study Czeisler did not specify the reason and Glenn declined to elaborate Researchers had rated the melatonin experiment as one of two top priorities among the human studies to take place during Glennrsquos Shuttle flight Four members of the Shuttle flight for the Neurolab mission which occurred earlier in 1998 had participated in the melatonin study and Chiaki Mukai a member of Glennrsquos crew would be a fifth participant However Glennrsquos disqualification meant that the scientists would be unable to test two of their four hypotheses603

21 October After experiencing two disastrous launch failures in 1996 and 1997 the European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched its French-made Ariane 5 rocket and recoverable space capsule from Korou French Guiana The 16 million-pound (800-ton 726000-kilogram or 726-tonne) rocket carried a 26-tonne (29-ton 5700-pound or 2600-kilogram) mock-up of a telecommunications satellite and a 28-tonne (31-ton 6200-pound or 2800-kilogram) recoverable capsule With the successful recovery of the capsule from the Pacific Ocean France became the fourth country to develop such technology following the United States Russia and China French scientists had designed the Ariane 5 rocket to carry payloads of 59minus68 tonnes (65minus75 tons 13000minus15000 pounds or 5900minus6800 kilograms) into geostationary orbit using twice the power of the Ariane 4 to provide launches for low-altitude orbits and interplanetary space probes and to lift the cargo vehicle that would be the ESArsquos contribution to the ISS604

22 October Scientists studying Galileo data published findings in the journal Nature describing the likely presence of a subsurface liquid salty ocean on Callisto Jupiterrsquos second largest moon Margaret G Kivelson space physics professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and NASArsquos Principal Investigator for Galileorsquos magnetometer instrument explained that data showed variability in Callistorsquos magnetic field similar to that of another Jupiter moon Europa However neither Callistorsquos atmosphere which lacks charged particles nor Callistorsquos icy crust is a good conductor for generating a magnetic field Kivelson explained that a layer of salty melted ice could carry ldquosufficient electrical currents to produce the magnetic fieldrdquo In addition she noted that Galileo data indicated electrical currents flowing in opposite directions at different times a ldquokey signature consistent with the idea of a salty oceanrdquo However scientists had concluded that unlike Europa Callisto was unlikely ever to support life even if it had an ocean because of its insufficient energy sources Callistorsquos only apparent source of heat is radioactive elements whereas Europarsquos closer position to Jupiter means it possesses tidal energy605

24 October

603 Lawrence K Altman ldquoGlenn Unable To Perform Experiment Planned for Space Flightrdquo New York Times 21 October 1998 604 John-Thor Dahlburg ldquoThird Tryrsquos the Charm for European Rocketrdquo Los Angeles Times 22 October 1998 Frank Sietzen Jr for United Press International ldquoAriane Capsule Test Called a Successrdquo 21 October 1998 605 NASA ldquoJupiterrsquos Moon Callisto May Hide Salty Oceanrdquo news release 98-192 21 October 1998 K K Khurana et al ldquoInduced Magnetic Fields as Evidence for Subsurface Oceans in Europa and Callistordquo Nature 395 no 6704 (22 October 1998) 777ndash780

169


NASA successfully launched Deep Space 1 a spacecraft that could ldquothink for itselfrdquo Driven by ion propulsion Deep Space 1 was the first craft to rely on this technology for its primary propulsion The craftrsquos destination was an asteroid 120 million miles (193 million kilometers) away from Earth Although tracking stations encountered initial difficulties receiving signals from the spacecraft Deep Space 1 communicated 2 hours after liftoff that it was on ldquothe right courserdquo and ldquoin good shaperdquo NASA scientists expected the spacecraft to travel 450 million miles (724 million kilometers) to catch up with the moving asteroid Without the ion-propulsion technology it would have required 10 times more fuel to reach its target The craft was also flying with 10 other ldquofuturistic technologiesrdquo such as lens-covered solar arrays to generate additional power and a radio beacon to communicate with ground controllers without their prompting the probe from Earth606

27 October The third and final Progress cargo spacecraft of the year Progress M-40 arrived at Mir docking smoothly and delivering food water fuel a giant space mirror and other scientific equipment NASA had delayed the cargo craftrsquos launch several times since its originally scheduled launch date in August 1998607

Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that they had placed GOES-8 the weather satellite responsible for monitoring the East Coast in a ldquosafe hold shutdownrdquo after it had developed problems with its attitude sensors GOES-10 was then required to watch the entire country although it could provide images only every 30 minutes instead of every 15 minutes as it did when each of the two satellites was able to monitor half of the United States NASA officials were especially concerned about monitoring East Coast weather because of worry that winds from Hurricane Mitch located over the coast of Central America could interfere with the upcoming launch of the Space Shuttle carrying veteran astronaut US Senator John H Glenn Jr608

NASArsquos Ames Research Center awarded a five-year US$993 million contract to Sverdrup Technology Inc of Tullahoma Tennessee to provide testing and facility operation including wind tunnels and arc-jet testing609

28 October NASA awarded KSC Small Expendable Launch Vehicle Services (SELVS-KSC) contracts to Coleman Research Corporation of Orlando Florida and Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles Virginia to provide launch services for NASA and for NASA-sponsored small-class payloads These indefinite deliveryndashindefinite quantity contracts ranging in value from US$100000 to US$400000 were part of NASArsquos effort to fulfill the goals and objectives of its Human

606 New York Times ldquoUS Launches a Spacecraft That Thinks for Itselfrdquo 25 October 1998 607 Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 27 October 1998 Spacewarn Bulletin no 540 1 November 1998 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx540html (accessed 28 October 2008) 608 Randolph E Schmid for Associated Press ldquoEast Weather Satellite Shuts Downrdquo 28 October 1998 609 NASA ldquoNASA Awards $99 Million Contract to Tennessee Firmrdquo contract announcement C98-q 27 October 1998

170


Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise NASA expected to award up to 16 missions over the contractrsquos five-year period610

29 October Space Shuttle Discovery Mission STS-95 launched from KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida carrying Commander Curtis L Brown Jr Pilot Steven W Lindsey Mission Specialists Scott E Parazynski Stephen K Robinson and Pedro Duque and Payload Specialists Chiaki Mukai and John H Glenn Jr The primary objectives of STS-95 included conveying a variety of science experiments inside the SPACEHAB module deploying and retrieving the Spartan free-flyer payload performing operations with the HST Orbiting Systems Test and transporting the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker payloads The historic mission also returned veteran astronaut John H Glenn Jr to space Thirty-six years after Glenn had first orbited Earth the seventy-seven-year-old astronaut became the oldest person to fly in orbit As a veteran of NASArsquos early Mercury program Glenn had been the first American to orbit Earth On 20 February 1962 in a flight lasting 5 hours Glenn had orbited Earth three times in a tiny capsule After he had passed a battery of medical tests and participated in astronaut training NASA had selected US Senator John H Glenn Jr as a crew member of STS-95 so that scientists could study ldquohow space travel affects an aging astronautrsquos bodyrdquo611

NOVEMBER 1998

2 November NASArsquos Ames Research Center awarded a six-year US$90 million contract to Logicon Syscon Inc of Falls Church Virginia to provide operations development maintenance and modification of the Centerrsquos aeronautical simulation facilities The contract included the operation and maintenance of the worldrsquos largest motion-base simulator the Vertical Motion Simulator designed to aid in the study of helicopter and vertical short takeoff and landing issues as well as the Crew-Vehicle Systems Research Facility designed for the study of human factors in aviation safety612

3 November Astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Discovery successfully retrieved the Spartan spacecraft thus completing a priority project of the nine-day mission The crew had deployed the satellite on 1 November to record observations of the Sunrsquos outer atmosphere and the solar wind Spartan had lagged 40 miles (64 kilometers) behind the Shuttle in free flight as it recorded the data The flight was the last in a series of four flights begun in 1993 to ldquogather observations at different points in the [S]unrsquos 11-year cycle of magnetic activityrdquo NASA had originally scheduled the mission for November 1997 but astronauts had ldquofailed to send a crucial commandrdquo before

610 NASA ldquoNASA Awards Launch Services Contracts for Small Payloadsrdquo contract announcement c98-r 28 October 1998 611 Bill Sammon ldquoSenator Upholds Status as Hero with His Return to Orbitrdquo Washington Times 30 October 1998 John Noble Wilford ldquoPioneer Returns as Crewman in the Shuttlerdquo New York Times 29 October 1998 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-95 John Glennrsquos Flight SPACEHABrdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-95html (accessed 20 October 2008) 612 NASA ldquoNASA Awards $90 Million Contract to Virginia Firmrdquo news release c98-s 2 November 1998

171


releasing the satellite so Spartan had gathered no data The crew had also tested an experimental laser range-finding device mounted in the Shuttle aiming at targets on Spartan613

7 November Astronaut John H Glenn Jr and his crewmates returned to Earth aboard Space Shuttle Discovery Despite concern that the landing might be rough because of a missing door on Discoveryrsquos drag chute the craft landed safely at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida The door had fallen off during the 29 October launch Mission Control had warned Pilot Steven W Lindsey that a braking chute might deploy unexpectedly but it remained safely in place throughout the landing process614

10 November The ion-propulsion engine on NASArsquos Deep Space 1 probe shut down suddenly after running for 4frac12 minutes the first time the probe had turned on its engine since the spacecraftrsquos launch three weeks before Ground controllers did not know the cause of the shutdown and made several unsuccessful attempts to restart the engine615

11 November Ground controllers in Madrid Spain lost contact with the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it approached the edge of the solar system but were able to reestablish communication The probe was ldquopowering down to conserve its plutonium energy sourcerdquo when controllers lost contact NASA had launched Voyager 2 in 1977 After the craft had toured Jupiter Saturn Uranus and Neptune NASA located it traveling toward the edge of the solar system at about 52 billion miles (84 billion kilometers) from Earth Scientists did not know why controllers had temporarily lost communication with the craft616

15 November Dr William K Douglas the physician who had overseen the care of the seven Mercury astronauts died of a viral infection at the age of 76 As part of his assignment to NASArsquos Manned Spacecraft Center at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia Dr Douglas had been ldquopersonally responsible for the medical care and flight preparation of the seven Mercury astronautsrdquo He had cared for Alan B Shepard Jr Virgil I ldquoGusrdquo Grissom John H Glenn Jr and M Scott Carpenter when they undertook the nationrsquos first four human spaceflights After retiring from the US Air Force in 1977 Dr Douglas had joined the McDonnell Douglas Corporation where he had helped design an orbiting space station before retiring in 1988 In

613 Washington Times ldquoGlenn Reports No Space Sickness as Discovery Releases Sun Gazerrdquo 2 November 1998 Washington Times ldquoAstronauts Snag Sun Observer To Complete a Primary Mission Glenn 77 Undergoes More Tests of His Response to Spacerdquo 4 November 1998 New York Times ldquoShuttle Easily Regains Satellite and Photosrdquo 4 November 1998 614 Kathy Sawyer ldquoGlenn Floats Back to Earth on the Wings of Discoveryrdquo Washington Post 8 November 1998 NASA ldquoNASA Mission Archives STS-95rdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchives sts-95html (accessed 11 June 2007) 615 Washington Times ldquoEngine Failure Strikes Space Proberdquo 12 November 1998 New York Times ldquoInnovative Engine on US Spacecraft Mysteriously Shuts Downrdquo 13 November 1998 616 Associated Press ldquoVoyager Glitchrdquo 18 November 1998

172


1992 Douglas was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo New Mexico617

16 November NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin appointed Edward J Weiler Acting Associate Administrator for NASArsquos Office of Space Science effective immediately Weiler had acted in the position since Wesley T Huntress Jrrsquos departure on 28 September Since March 1996 Weiler had served as Science Director of the Astronomical Search for Origins and Planetary Systems within the Office of Space Science He had been a program scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) since 1979618

17 November Satellites survived the annual Leonid meteor storm with no major damage Astronomers had predicted the storm would be the most intense in three decades because Comet Tempel-Tuttle had swung closer to the Sun in February as it does every 33 years creating a greater-thanshyaverage amount of comet dust Scientists had feared that particles traveling at 43 miles (69 kilometers) per second could shred satellitesrsquo solar arrays damage sensitive instruments or cause circuits to short619

19 November NASArsquos ER-2 aircraft a ldquoclose relativerdquo of the U-2 spy plane officially broke the altitude record for medium-weight planes when it flew to 68700 feet (20900 meters) nearly twice the cruising altitude of commercial airliners during a mission to measure components of the atmosphere A Canadian P-42 aircraft had set the previous record of 62500 feet (19050 meters) in 1988 NASA officials said the craft had flown at such altitudes in the past but this flight was the first time that scientists had documented its altitude and made it public620

20 November After a delay of more than a year a Russian Proton booster rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying into orbit the first module of the International Space Station (ISS) the 412-foot (126-meter) Zarya The role of Zarya translated as Sunrise would be to act as a ldquospace tugboatrdquo in the early stages of construction providing propulsion power and communications621

22 November Russiarsquos first privately owned satellite a Bonum-1 communications satellite launched successfully from Cape Canaveral Florida aboard a Delta rocket NASA had canceled the first three attempts to launch the satellite because of numerous technical problems The launch was also the first time a US rocket had placed a Russian commercial satellite in orbit and the first

617 Wolfgang Saxon ldquoWilliam Douglas 76 the Doctor for the Seven Early Astronautsrdquo New York Times 24 November 1998 618 NASA ldquoWeiler Named Associate Administrator for Space Sciencerdquo news release 98-204 16 November 1998 619 Paul Hoversten ldquoSpace Storm Fizzles Satellites Survive lsquoDrizzlersquordquo USA Today 18 November 1998 620 Agence France-Presse ldquoNASA Airplane Flies High into Sky ER-2 Able To Break Record for Altituderdquo Washington Times 23 November 1998 621 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoRussia Puts First Segment of International Space Station in Orbitrdquo 20 November 1998

173


time an American company had built a satellite for a Russian company Hughes Space and Communications had built the Bonum-1 for Moscow-based Media Most owner of Russiarsquos largest television network The chairperson of the board of Media Most Vladimir A Goussinsky described the event as a ldquorevolutionrdquo because the satellite would provide up to 50 television channels for 200 million viewers in Russia western Siberia and Eastern Europe622

23 November NASA released results from the Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S) to the worldwide astronomy community for research as well as to the public HDF-S was a 10-day observation that had taken place in October 1998 With all of its new cameras and other instruments trained simultaneously down the same 12 billionndashlight-yearndashlong ldquocorridorrdquo the team of astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute and NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center had captured a ldquocore samplerdquo of the universe doubling the number of far-flung galaxies available for astronomers to study The astronomers had studied a region in the constellation Tucana near the south celestial pole complementing a previous deep-field study carried out in late 1995 when scientists aimed the HST at a ldquosmall patch of space near the Big Dipperrdquo623

25 November NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that the ion engine responsible for the Deep Space 1 probersquos primary propulsion was back in operation after its unexpected shutdown two weeks earlier Scientists believed that metallic grit or another type of contaminant located between two high-voltage grids had caused the engine to shut down after running for 4frac12 minutes624

Russian Space Agency officials reported for the first time since Zaryarsquos launch that the module had experienced malfunctions At a press conference Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev explained that none of the modulersquos three minor malfunctions had any impact on the modulersquos overall operations Koptev reported that one of the eight batteries storing energy collected from the modulersquos solar panels had not performed properly but he emphasized that Zarya needed only four of the eight batteries to operate Mission Control had detected an ldquounexpected abundance of humidityrdquo inside the module but engineers did not yet know its cause The third problem involved a malfunctioning antenna in the craftrsquos automatic docking system a device that the first ISS crew would not need until after their arrival in January 2000625

DECEMBER 1998

1 December NASA announced its selection of LittonPRC of Mclean Virginia to perform work under NASArsquos sounding rocket operations contract consolidating several previous contracts The four-year contract an indefinite deliveryndashindefinite quantity contract worth between US$119 million

622 Robyn Suriano ldquoDelta Lifts Russian Satelliterdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 23 November 1998 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoUS Broadcast Satellite Was Launched for Russiardquo 23 November 1998 623 NASA ldquoThe Universe lsquoDown Underrsquo Is the Target of Hubblersquos Latest Deep-Viewrdquo news release 98-206 23 November 1998 624 NASA ldquoDeep Space 1 Ion Propulsion System Starts Uprdquo news release 98-215 25 November 1998 Associated Press ldquoSpacecraftrsquos Troubled Ion Engine Restartsrdquo Washington Post 26 November 1998 625 Adam Tanner for Reuters ldquoMinor Problems Plague New Space Stationrdquo 25 November 1998

174


and US$2118 million included two three-year options worth up to an additional US$5725 million Goddard Space Flight Centerrsquos (GSFCrsquos) Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island Virginia was to provide services including design fabrication integration testing and performance of mission operations for sounding rocket missions NASA considered the contract an integral part of the Wallops 2000 strategic plan initiated in 1997 to ensure the facilityrsquos future ldquostability and vitalityrdquo626

NASA awarded US$33 million in grants to 48 researchers to conduct microgravity biotechnology research through NASArsquos Office of Life and Microgravity Science and Applications To those investigators awarded the 40 grants for ground-based research NASA provided access to its microgravity research facilities including aircraft flying parabolic trajectories and sounding rockets NASA awarded eight grants to flight-definition investigators to prepare for experiments on the International Space Station (ISS)627

2 December NASA modified a contract with Boeing Information Space and Defense Systems increasing by US$1634 million the companyrsquos contract for work on the ISS Under the modified contract Boeing would supply additional engineering support and prelaunch testing for the ISS The original eight-year prime contract effective since 1995 had a value of US$71 billion and covered the construction and integration of the ISS The modification covered sustained engineering for station elements engineering support following a componentrsquos delivery to NASA and support of multielement integrated testing628

NASA announced that Raytheon STX Corporation of Lanham Maryland would provide routine data operations research and development support for the Space Science Data Operations Office and the National Space Science Data Center at GSFC under a two-year contract with three one-year options Valued at more than US$33 million the contract covered the processing of space-science data and the acquisition modeling analysis archiving and dissemination of NASArsquos archival data to the scientific community educators and the public629

4 December After a one-day delay Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida carrying Commander Robert D Cabana Pilot Frederick W ldquoRickrdquo Sturckow and Mission Specialists Nancy J Currie Jerry L Ross James H Newman and Sergei K Krikalev The purpose of STS-88 was to connect the US-built Unity module of the ISS to the first ISS component Zarya The Russian Space Agency had placed Zarya in orbit in November Launch controllers had scrubbed the liftoff of Endeavour planned for 3 December after the master alarm sounded in the cockpit with only 4frac12 minutes remaining in the 10-minute countdown window Engineers had determined that the alarm indicated momentary low pressure

626 NASA ldquoNASA Selects LittonPRC for NASA Sounding Rocket Programrdquo contract announcement C98-t 1 December 1998 627 NASA ldquoNASA Announces Research Grants in Microgravity Biotechnologyrdquo news release 98-217 1 December 1998 628 NASA ldquoEngineering and Testing Support To Be Supplied by International Space Station Contract Modificationrdquo contract announcement c98-u 2 December 1998 629 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Raytheon STX To Provide Goddard Supportrdquo contract announcement c98-v 2 December 1998

175


in the hydraulics system The crew experienced no problems with the second launch until another alarm sounded shortly after they had reached orbit indicating that one of three hydraulic power units had overheated The crew then switched to a backup controller to allow the overheated unit to cool before shutting down each unit as planned630

5 December A modified L-1011 jetliner flying at 40000 feet (12000 meters) dropped a Pegasus XL rocket carrying the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) designed to study the formation of stars and planets The launch marked the beginning of a two-year US$64 million mission to learn more about the ldquocomposition of interstellar clouds and monitor how they cool as they collapse to form stars and planetsrdquo The 397-pound (179-kilogram) SWAS would study water molecular oxygen atomic carbon and isotopic carbon monoxide by means of submillimeter wave radiation which scientists cannot observe from the ground NASArsquos GSFC managed the mission631

6 December Using precision flying Space Shuttle Endeavourrsquos robotic arm cameras and a computerized vision system the US-Russian crew of Endeavour successfully joined the US module Unity to the Russian module Zarya With a weight of 21 tons (19100 kilograms or 191 tonnes) Zarya was the ldquomost massive objectrdquo that the robotic arm had ever lifted Because Unity blocked the astronautsrsquo view from the Shuttlersquos window they relied on a system of cameras as well as on the new Canadian Space Vision System to provide visual cues concerning the two unitsrsquo exact positions632

At an American Geophysical Union meeting a team of research scientists led by David E Smith of GSFC discussed new research findings based on data collected in the spring and summer by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) The data indicated that the ice cap on Marsrsquos north pole although definitely water ice is much smaller than previously thought The scientists concluded that the amount of water in the ice cap is not voluminous enough to have created the ldquodeep gullies that scar the surface of the planetrdquo nor could it have filled an ancient ocean MOLA images showed the ice cap resting in a deep basin possibly created by an asteroid impact Scientists described this formation as unique in the solar system The team of researchers remarked that their findings raised more questions about Marsrsquos formation and conditions than they answered633

630 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoSpace Stationrdquo 4 December 1998 Brad Liston for Reuters ldquoNASA Hopes for Another Shuttle Try on Fridayrdquo 3 December 1998 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-88 First International Space Station Flightrdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-88html (accessed 28 October 2008) 631 Associated Press ldquoNASA Launches Probe To Study Starsrdquo 5 December 1998 CNNcom ldquoNASA Launches Satellite To Study Star Formationrdquo httpwwwcnncomTECHspace981205swaslaunch (accessed 27 October 2008) 632 Kathy Sawyer ldquoUS Russian Modules Are Linked in Orbit Foundation for New Space Station Formedrdquo Washington Post 7 December 1998 633 NASA ldquoLaser Provides First 3-D View of Marsrsquo North Polerdquo news release 98-219 7 December 1998 Joseph B Verrenga for Associated Press ldquoIcecap Seen on Marsrsquo North Polerdquo 6 December 1998 Maria T Zuber et al ldquoObservations of the North Polar Region of Mars from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeterrdquo Science 282 no 5396 (11 December 1998) 2053

176


7 December Astronauts Jerry L Ross and James H Newman undertook a 4frac12-hour-long spacewalk to install 40 electrical and data connectors linking the US-built connecting module Unity with the Russian-built power module Zarya The pair also bolted handrails to the side of Unity and photographed two of Zaryarsquos backup docking antennas which had failed to deploy Russian ground controllers sent commands to power up Zarya jump-starting Unityrsquos electrical systems Ross and Newman then removed thermal covers from Unityrsquos outside computers to prevent overheating634

8 December Intel Corporation agreed to grant NASA the US Department of Energy Sandia National Laboratory and the US Armed Forces a royalty-free license to adapt the Pentium chip to withstand extreme radiation so that other agencies could use it in spacecraft and military equipment635

9 December Astronauts Jerry L Ross and James H Newman undertook their second spacewalk lasting 7 hours to install two 100-pound (454-kilogram) communications antennas on each side of the Unity module They hooked one of the antennas to a video cable running from the Zarya module Then the two astronauts erected a folding sunshade over a computer outside of Unity bundling loose cables that ran along the exterior of the module Ross and Newman also removed the restraints that had stabilized the four Unity hatchways during the launch Finally Newman successfully tapped free one of Zaryarsquos stuck antennas using a 10-foot-long (3-meter-long) extendable grappling hook636

11 December Endeavourrsquos Commander Robert D Cabana and Russian cosmonaut Sergei K Krikalev leading the four other crew members entered the Unity module for the first time via an airlock attached to the Shuttle The crew checked air pressure and quality turned on lights and systems detached components that were stored in the modules and set up a communications system connecting internal components with the two antennas outside Unity Astronauts Jerry L Ross and James H Newman had installed the two antennas on 9 December The Shuttle crew spent 28 hours inside the modules before turning off the lights and closing the station637

After a one-day delay to correct a software problem Mars Climate Orbiter launched from Cape Canaveral Florida atop a Delta II rocket NASA had scheduled the 1400-pound (635-kilogram) robotic craft paired with Mars Polar Lander to launch on 3 January 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander the second pair headed to study Mars following Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor were part of NASArsquos ldquolong-term strategy for Mars explorationrdquo calling for small robotic craft ldquoto leave Earth two at a timerdquo about every two years According to

634 Paul Hoversten ldquoSpacewalkers Complete a Tricky Wiring Jobrdquo USA Today 8 December 1998 635 Dean Takahashi ldquoIntel Corp To Send Its Pentium Chip into Outer Space Firm To Grant Royalty-Free License to US To Adapt Product for Spaceshipsrdquo Wall Street Journal 9 December 1998 636 Warren E Leary ldquo2 Astronauts Make 2d Space Walk To Install Antennas on Stationrdquo New York Times 10 December 1998 637 Warren E Leary ldquoAstronauts Enter International Space Stationrdquo New York Times 11 December 1998 Paul Hoversten ldquoShuttle Finishes Linkup with Space Stationrdquo USA Today 14 December 1998

177


NASArsquos plan Climate Orbiterrsquos first task would be to provide a two-way communications relay between ground controllers and Polar Lander after Landerrsquos arrival and during its planned 60ndash90 day mission Thereafter Orbiter would generate weather maps and profile the Martian atmosphere for a full Martian year or 687 days638

12 December Jerry L Ross and James H Newman made their final spacewalk to free the second Russian docking antenna on Zarya which had failed to unfurl The pair also finished outfitting the station The astronauts had required a total of 21 hours over three spacewalks to complete the work639

15 December Ending one of NASArsquos ldquomost successful and historic missionsrdquo with a rare night landing Space Shuttle Endeavour landed at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida after its weeklong linkup with the new ISS Before departing the ISS on 13 December Pilot Frederick W ldquoRickrdquo Sturckow flew around the station slowly while the crew photographed the ISS permitting ground controllers to see the station for the first time NASArsquos Deputy Station Chief Frank L Culbertson Jr remarked that the mission was as historically significant as that of Apollo 8 the first piloted mission to the Moon and that the hardware of ISS was the foundation of ldquowhat will put humanity in space foreverrdquo640

17 December NASArsquos tailless single-engine 18-foot-long (55-meter-long) X-36 airplane resumed flight-testing a system to help a damaged airplane continue its flight Over a 20-minute period a pilot used remote control from the ground to fly the plane sending signals to simulate damage The first in a series of five to 10 flights the test was part of Reconfigurable Control for Tailless Fighter Aircraft (RESTORE) RESTORE was testing neural-network software that permitted a plane to reconfigure flight-control surfaces automatically The software would have both civil and military applications641

18 December KSC officials broke ground on a complex for testing a NASA experimental rocket the X-34 Engineers had designed the vehicle⎯a small winged rocket⎯to launch into orbit from an airplane and to return to Earth landing like an airplane Planning flight tests to begin in 2000 KSC hoped the new facility would attract commercial space enterprises such as Lockheedrsquos VentureStarTM still under development Facilities anywhere in the country would be able to

638 Kathy Sawyer ldquoMars Probe To Examine Climate NASA Launch Is First of Two Designed To Shed Light on Potential for Liferdquo Washington Post 12 December 1998 639 Paul Hoversten ldquoShuttle Finishes Linkuprdquo 640 Paul Hoversten ldquoShuttle Finishes Linkuprdquo United Press International ldquoShuttle Lands in Floridardquo 15 December 1998 NASA ldquoNASA Mission Archives STS-88rdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissions archivessts-88html 641 Jim Skeen ldquoA Bird Without a Tail Craft Will Mimic Damaged Airplanerdquo Los Angeles Daily News 18 December 1998

178


launch the VentureStarTM once completed because it would not use boosters or fuel tanks and therefore would not require a coastal launch site642

21 December NASA announced it had renamed the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility the Chandra X-ray Observatory in honor of the late Nobel Laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar NASA chose the name Chandra because it was the late scientistrsquos preferred name among friends and colleagues and because it means moon or luminous in Sanskrit NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin commented that Chandrasekhar had made ldquofundamental contributions to the theory of black holes and other phenomenardquo which the Chandra X-ray Observatory would study NASA also announced that it had set a new launch date for the observatory⎯no earlier than 8 April 1999643

29 December NASA announced that Colorado State University would lead a US$145 million study of clouds to better understand global warming and to ldquodramatically improverdquo weather forecasts The five-year project would use a satellite named CloudSat to capture three-dimensional global images of clouds644

JANUARY 1999

3 January NASA launched Mars Polar Lander from Cape Canaveral Florida atop a Boeing Delta II rocket three weeks after the launch of its companion craft Mars Climate Orbiter The craftrsquos main purpose was to search Mars for signs of water Lander carried machinery and two microprobes as well as a microphone to record the sounds of Martian wind Mars Polar Lander and Mars Climate Orbiter formed a pair the second launched in a 12-year series of dual missions to explore Mars with the ultimate goal of collecting a sample of Martian soil to bring to Earth by 2008645

6 January An independent study group commissioned by the US Air Force announced the findings of its investigation into the loss of business at Floridarsquos Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Retired US Air Force General Richard C Henry had headed the group comprising 11 government agencies and 19 aerospace firms After surveying commercial launch companies and satellite manufacturers the group had measured the cost and ease of doing business at Cape Canaveral against three prime competitors the European Space Agencyrsquos Kourou Space Center in French Guiana South America Kazakhstanrsquos Baikonur Cosmodrome primarily used by Russia and Chinarsquos Xichang Space Center General Richard Henry summarized the crux of the grouprsquos findings ldquocompanies regard Canaveral as superb in location and facilities but rank it second

642 Robyn Suriano ldquoNASA Breaks Ground for $8 Million Complex To Serve New Rocket Attract VentureStarrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 19 December 1998 643 NASA ldquoNASA Renames Telescope and Sets New Launch Daterdquo news release 98-225 21 December 1998 644 Bill Scanlon ldquoCSU Will Lead NASA Cloud Study $145 Million Project Is Designed To Improve Weather Forecasts Study Global Warmingrdquo Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 30 December 1998 645 Reuters ldquoUS Mars Probe Launched from Floridardquo 3 January 1999 Beth Dickey ldquoCraft Joins Mars Quest for Waterrdquo New York Times 4 January 1999

179


primarily because of the perception that the commercial customer is second to the government customerrdquo Companies had sought launch services elsewhere to avoid the bureaucratic red tape associated with Cape Canaveral Air Force Station operated by the US Air Force With increasing demand spaceports in South America Russia and China had been doing more business during the previous two decades at Floridarsquos expense The group issued three recommendations to correct the situation and to attract business to Florida 1) boost the number of launches staged from Cape Canaveral 2) shift to customer-friendly operations and 3) modernize launch-support systems at the spaceport many of which the United States had first implemented in the late 1950s and early 1960s646

7 January NASA Inspector General Roberta L Gross released a report estimating that NASA had ldquospent [US]$3 million in lsquoexcessive costsrsquordquo on its Houston-to-Moscow air-charter program The investigators criticized the program saying it was more expensive than commercial travel An investigation had revealed that the flights which typically used Boeing 727s seating 143 travelers sometimes carried as few as nine people The charter flights originated in Houston and usually stopped in Huntsville Alabama and Washington DC before continuing on to Moscow A few weeks before the release of the report NASArsquos Office of Space Flight had rejected a recommendation from the Inspector General to terminate the service arguing that the program ldquoprovided lsquotangible and intangiblersquo benefits to workers on the International Space Station [ISS]rdquo NASA had developed the program as a cost-saving measure and as an alternative to contracting with the US Department of Defense to transport employees involved with the multibillion-dollar space station program The Inspector General found that the chartered flights averaged around 50 people NASA had estimated a 90-passenger threshold for the program to realize savings In response to the demand of US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs Chairperson Fred Thompson (R-TN) that NASA ldquohalt this waste immediatelyrdquo Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced that NASA would terminate the program ldquoas soon as practicalrdquo647

11 January Mario Dario Grossi radio physicist and engineer died at the age of 74 in Boston Massachusetts Grossi developed the concept of tethered satellites and the hardware to make them possible Together with a colleague Grossi had conducted most of his work at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Grossi had first approached NASA with his concept in 1972 and in 1982 NASA had issued a contract to build a system In July 1992 NASA had tested the tether in space when astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis Mission STS-46 ldquoreeled out a half-ton [450shykilogram or 045-tonne] satellite of the Italian Space Agency dangling on a spaghetti-thin cord 12 miles [19 kilometers] longrdquo The successful test had provided data that would assist engineers in applying the tether satellite technology to build space stations or in ldquooperating instrument-laden satellites far from the [S]huttlerdquo648

12 January The National Research Council Committee on Space Shuttle Upgrades released a report cautioning NASA ldquonot to wait too long to choose between keeping the Shuttle until 2020 or

646 Todd Halvorson ldquoStudy Spaceport Must Change or Loserdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 7 January 1999 647 Michelle Mittelstadt for the Associated Press ldquoNASA Ends Moscow Charter Flightsrdquo 7 January 1999 648 Wolfgang Saxon ldquoM Grossi 74 Created Tether for Satellitesrdquo New York Times 18 January 1999

180


scrapping it after 2012 in favor of a new vehicle like Lockheed Martinrsquos proposed VentureStarrdquo The committee led by former astronaut and former head of the Space Shuttle Program Bryan D OrsquoConnor advised NASA to make a timely decision to either phase out the Shuttle upgrade program or make the major investments necessary for the Shuttle to carry out reliably its long-term mission The panel specifically addressed the Liquid Fly Back Booster (LFBB) the most expensive Shuttle upgrade under consideration with development costs estimated at between US$2 billion and US$7 billion The panelrsquos report revealed that NASA had not investigated enough alternatives to the LFBB to ensure that it was ldquothe most appropriate way to meet the needs of the Shuttle and other programsrdquo649

13 January NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced that the plutonium-powered Cassini spacecraft en route to Saturn had entered safe mode on 11 January The craft NASArsquos largest and most complex interplanetary probe had detected a possible error in its orientation which prompted it to halt all ldquonon-criticalrdquo activity while maintaining its communications link with Earth650

JPL appointed Glenn E Cunningham Manager of NASArsquos Mars Surveyor Operations Project as the new Deputy Director of JPLrsquos Mars Exploration Directorate In the newly created position JPL tasked Cunningham with overseeing the implementation and operations of all Mars missions through 2013 As Cunninghamrsquos successor JPL appointed Richard A Cook former Flight Operations Manager for the 1997 Mars Pathfinder Lander and Rover Mission to manage the Mars Surveyor Operations Project651

15 January At a Boeing Company awards ceremony NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin and U S Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) recognized ldquomembers of the Delta launch team who were instrumental in sending NASA spacecraft to Marsrdquo awarding Jay L Witzling Vice President of Delta Programs with NASArsquos Public Service Medal Other critical leaders in the program also received awards for their dedication and participation In his remarks Goldin commented on the characteristics that made Boeingrsquos Delta rocket ldquomore and more the launch vehicle of choicerdquo Goldin explained that the Delta rocket was the least expensive launch vehicle had the fastest turnaround and had demonstrated the highest degree of reliability Goldin also commented that the four launches to Mars aboard Delta rockets had ldquochanged the face of the space programrdquo652

NASA announced that NASA scientists and other weather researchers had ldquogained intriguing new information about upper-level winds that drive hurricanes and about the stormsrsquo devastating impact as they collide with mountainsrdquo The research findings were the result of a seven-week study conducted by NASA the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and several

649 Aerospace Daily ldquoNRC Panel Worried NASA Hasnrsquot Studied Alternatives to LFBBrdquo 13 January 1999 650 Associated Press ldquoSaturn-Bound Spacecraft Develops Problem JPL Saysrdquo Los Angeles Times 14 January 1999 651 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoCunningham Cook Named to Mars Postsrdquo news release 99-03 13 January 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99marsapptshtml (accessed 23 January 2008) 652 PR Newswire ldquoMars Missions Earn Honors for Boeing Delta Employees NASArsquos Goldin and Congressman Rohrabacher Present Awardsrdquo 27 January 1999

181


universities during the previous summer as part of the Third Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX-3) The studyrsquos purpose was to gauge the strength of Atlantic hurricane winds and rainfall CAMEX-3 researchers had used data collected with special laser instruments aboard NASArsquos DC-8 aircraft which flew through hurricanes Bonnie Danielle Earl and Georges data collected from NASArsquos ER-2 high-altitude aircraft which flew above the hurricanes to collect ldquofirst-of its-kind datardquo and data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite Edward J Zipser of Texas AampM University remarked ldquothe multi-aircraft datasets obtained by NASA aircraft in these hurricanes are unprecedented in their comprehensivenessrdquo653

22 January After having agreed in June 1998 to abandon the space station within a year Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny M Primakov issued a decree to keep Mir in space for three more years using private funds so that Russia could dedicate its insufficient space budget to its ISS commitments The decree reportedly mentioned that Russian and foreign contractors and investors would develop a plan allowing Mir to remain in orbit without using ISS-allocated funds654

23 January Astronomers captured for the first time optical images of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) as it was occurring Detectors of the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on NASArsquos orbiting Compton Gamma Ray Observatory detected the GRB as it began and radioed its position to the Gamma Ray Burst Coordinates Network (GCN) at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) GSFC immediately forwarded the position to astronomers around the world In response to this signal the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) team in Los Alamos New Mexico photographed the patch of sky where the GRB was occurring Using precise information from instruments aboard the Italian-Dutch BeppoSAX satellite the ROTSE team was able to locate the GRB within the images they had captured Astronomer Scott D Barthelmy of GSFC remarked that capturing a burst as it unfolded was the ldquoholy grailrdquo of GCN and that previously optical telescopes had only seen the afterglow of a burst never the burst itself655

25 January NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin named Lori B Garver as Associate Administrator for NASArsquos Office of Policy and Plans effective immediately Garver had served as Acting Associate Administrator since September 1998 She had begun working for NASA in 1996 as Special Assistant to the Administrator Before joining NASA she had been Executive Director of the National Space Society since 1987 and a president of Women in Aerospace Goldin remarked that Garverrsquos experience inside and outside NASA had ldquoproven invaluablerdquo and that she had demonstrated the management skills and policy leadership that her new position required656

653 NASA ldquoNASA Hurricane Study Reveals Intriguing Resultsrdquo news release 99-4 15 January 1999 654 Peter N Spotts ldquoSaving Mir At What Cost to New Space Station Russians Decree That They Will Keep Aging Orbital Outpost Raises Questions in US About Their Ability To Fund International Projectrdquo Christian Science Monitor 25 January 1999 655 NASA ldquoGamma Ray Burst Imaged for the First Timerdquo news release 99-8 27 January 1999 656 NASA ldquoGarver Named Associate Administrator for Policy and Plansrdquo news release 99-6 25 January 1999

182


26 January NASA announced that it had selected from among 35 proposals five candidates for participation in its Medium-Class Explorer (MIDEX) program Each of the candidates received US$350000 to conduct a four-month implementation feasibility study NASA planned to study these proposals rigorously over the following five months before choosing the two MIDEX program participants The five proposals selected for further study were 1) the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer a three-telescope space observatory for studying the position brightness and physical properties of GRBs 2) the NGSS or Next Generation Sky Survey a four-channel supercooled infrared telescope designed to survey the entire sky with 1000 times more sensitivity than previous missions 3) FAME the Full-Sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer a space telescope designed to obtain highly precise position and brightness measurements of 40 million stars 4) the AMM or Auroral Multiscale MIDEX Mission a formation of four identically instrumented small satellites in a near-polar highly elliptical orbit and 5) ASCE Advanced Solar Coronal Explorer a powerful solar telescope which would reveal the physical processes in the Sun that lead to the solar wind and explosive coronal mass ejections NASA had also selected instruments from two proposed MIDEX missions for technology-development funding NASA awarded US$700000 each to Richard E Rothschild of the University of California at San Diego to develop an x-ray detector for studying black holes of all sizes and to Gary R Swenson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to develop detectors for studying waves in Earthrsquos upper atmosphere657

FEBRUARY 1999

2 February McDermott International Inc a worldwide energy services company announced the election to its board of directors of Kathryn D Sullivan President and CEO of the Ohio Center for Science and Industry since 1996 Before serving in that position Sullivan had been a chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and before that she had been an astronaut and mission specialist at NASA In 1978 NASA had selected Sullivan as a mission specialist for the first class of Space Shuttle astronauts In 1984 while serving on a mission aboard Space Shuttle Challenger she had become the first American woman to walk in space Sullivan had also flown aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) deployment mission in 1990 and aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis with the ATLAS-1 Spacelab flight in 1992658

4 February The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel established by Congress after the Apollo 1 spacecraft fire on 27 January 1967 submitted its annual report to NASA The panel found Shuttle safety satisfactory but cautioned that cutbacks such as hiring freezes and budgetary restrictions had created a ldquolooming crisisrdquo of future shortfalls in the workforce The panel warned that NASA was at risk of ldquolosing the core competencies needed to conduct the nationrsquos spaceflight and aerospace programs in a safe and effective mannerrdquo Budgetary constraints had also caused NASA to postpone planned improvements to the Shuttle fleet and the International Space Station (ISS) The panelrsquos chairperson remarked that both programs were operating at an ldquoacceptable

657 NASA ldquoFive Explorer Mission Proposals Picked for Feasibility Studiesrdquo news release 99-7 26 January 1999 658 Business Wire ldquoKathryn D Sullivan Elected to McDermott International Board of Directorsrdquo 2 February 1999

183


level of riskrdquo but that updating Shuttle computers and refurbishing the supply of spare parts would make the programs safer659

NASArsquos Mars Global Surveyor successfully completed the aerobraking phase of its mission raising its orbit completely out of the Martian atmosphere and preparing the craft to begin its primary mapping mission Glenn E Cunningham Deputy Director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) described the Mars spacecraftrsquos ldquopioneering operationrdquo of aerobraking as a long and arduous task which had become a valuable learning experience for all involvedmdashengineers and scientists alike The technique required the spacecraft to use frictional drag ldquoas it skim[med] through the planetrsquos thin atmosphererdquo altering the shape of the craftrsquos orbit and providing an innovative method to change the orbit using less on-board fuel NASA had first tested aerobraking in 1994 during the final days of the Magellan mission to Venus A structural problem with Mars Global Surveyorrsquos solar panel had delayed the final burn of aerobraking by approximately one year so that the flight team could ensure that the process would not overstress the weakened panel The extended aerobraking phase had enabled Global Surveyor to acquire bonus science data yielding ldquosome spectacular new findings about Marsrdquo such as a ldquoprofile of the planetrsquos northern polar cap and information about the unique nature of its remnant magnetic fieldsrdquo660

5 February An international team of scientists published findings based on research using data from NASArsquos Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft The team had sought to locate the origin of solar wind which interacts with Earthrsquos magnetic field creating auroral displays like the Northern Lights as well as disrupting satellites and communications equipment The SOHO team believed that the solar wind originated from honeycomb-shaped areas called convection cells located beneath the coronal holes Using data from the spectrometer the scientists had measured for the first time the structure and motion of gases inside the coronal holes The team reported that in some places above coronal holes magnetic field lines do not loop back to the Sunrsquos surface but rather the magnetic lines shoot upward without returning to the Sun thereby originating the solar wind661

The Russian Space Agencyrsquos ldquospace mirrorrdquo failed to unfurl properly at the Mir space station and Russia officially terminated the experiment Crew attached the mirror to a cargo spacecraft filled with trash sending it to burn up in Earthrsquos atmosphere Engineers had intended the 83-foot (25-meter) mirror to ldquowork like an artificial [M]oonrdquo acting as a prototype for larger mirrors that ldquocould illuminate [S]un-starved northern cities through the long Arctic nights and spotlight disaster areasrdquo The experimentrsquos failure was a ldquobig disappointmentrdquo for the Russian Space Agency which had hoped to display ldquoits ability to conduct pioneering ambitious projects despite a lack of fundsrdquo662

659 NASA ldquoAerospace Safety Advisory Panel To Present Report to NASArdquo news release N99-8 4 February 1999 Marcia Dunn for the Associated Press ldquoSpace Safetyrdquo 5 February 1999 660 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoMars Global Surveyor Successfully Completes Aerobrakingrdquo news release 99-06 4 February 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99mgsbrakehtml (accessed 23 January 2008) 661 Donald Hassler et al ldquoSolar Wind Outflow and the Chromospheric Magnetic Networkrdquo Science 283 no 5403 (5 February 1999) 810 United Press International ldquoSource of Solar Wind Believed Foundrdquo 4 February 662 Vladimir Isachenkov for the Associated Press ldquoRussia-Space Mirrorrdquo 5 February 1999

184


7 February After a one-day delay a Delta II rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Florida carrying the US$128 million Stardust spacecraft Stardust launched on a mission described as NASArsquos first attempt to ldquoreturn to Earth solid extraterrestrial material from beyond our [M]oonrsquos orbitrdquo Astronomers expected that after traveling for about five years the craft would rendezvous with a medium-sized comet A device aboard the Stardust would collect tiny particles from the comet before returning to Earth on 15 January 2006663

8 February NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin named Kevin L Petersen who had been serving in an acting capacity since August 1998 as Director of NASArsquos Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) in Edwards California Petersen had joined Dryden as an aerospace engineer in 1974 and had worked on flight-research projects including the F-8 Digital Fly-by-Wire the HiMAT (the Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology) and the X-29 forward-swept wing projects He had served as Chief of the Vehicle Technology Branch Chief of the National Aerospace Plane Projects Office and since January 1996 as DFRCrsquos Deputy Director664

NASA released findings from its Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraftrsquos flyby of asteroid 433 known as Eros The flyby had occurred on 23 December 1998 The NEAR spacecraftrsquos instruments had collected data revealing that the asteroid was slightly smaller than previously thought with at least two medium-sized craters and a density comparable to that of the Earthrsquos crust665

9 February An Israeli court indicted Israeli teenager Ehud Tenenbaum and four accomplices⎯Guy Fleisher Ariel Rosenfeld Barak Abutbul and Rafael Ohana⎯for illegal entry of computers in the United States and Israel The group allegedly hacked into the computer systems of the Pentagon and NASA as well as those of academic institutions in Israel and Israelrsquos Knesset666

NASA released images taken with cameras aboard the HST revealing the infancy of planets NASA described the images as a ldquoglimpse of what our solar system looked like 45 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets began to condenserdquo The images did not show actual planets but rather the discs of dust that surround young stars The HST images of six young stars located 450 light-years away in the constellation Taurus showed important details never before revealed in infrared or radio observations such as the size shape thickness and orientation of the discs667

NASA announced the selection of Italian astronaut Umberto Guidoni to fly aboard Shuttle Mission STS-102 Guidoni was the first astronaut named to Mission STS-102 and the first European astronaut selected for an ISS mission The primary purpose of STS-102 would be to

663 Michael Cabbage ldquoStardust Is Launched To Sweep Comet Debrisrdquo New Orleans Times-Picayune 8 February 1999 664 NASA ldquoPetersen Named Dryden Directorrdquo news release 99-14 8 February 1999 665 NASA ldquoNEAR Spacecraft Reveals Major Features of Erosrdquo news release 99-13 8 February 1999 666 Chicago Tribune ldquo5 Are Indicted for Hacking in the USrdquo 10 February 1999 667 Associated Press ldquoHubble May Have Early Planet Imagesrdquo 10 February 1999

185


deliver a 21-by-15-foot (64-by-46-meter) multipurpose logistics module named Leonardo to the ISS The Italian Space Agency and NASA had constructed Leonardo under a bilateral agreement that included a flight opportunity for an Italian astronaut Before his assignment on STS-102 Guidoni had flown in 1996 as a payload specialist aboard Mission STS-75 That 16shyday mission had included working with the U S Microgravity Payload and testing the NASA-Italian Space Agency Tethered Satellite System668

11 February NASA announced its selection of a team of industry partners to develop a ldquohighway in the sky systemrdquo allowing the average person to travel in small easy-to-fly personal aircraft at four times the speed of a car NASA selected Avidyne Corporation of Lexington Massachusetts AvroTec Inc of Portland Oregon Lancair of Redmond Oregon Raytheon Aircraft of Wichita Kansas Rockwell Collins of Cedar Rapids Iowa Seagull Technologies of Los Gatos California and Allied Signal of Olathe Kansas as the industry partners NASA tasked the team with completing hardware and software development of an entirely new concept for a cockpit display system intended to guide the pilot to a preprogrammed destination669

12 February NASA officials announced that the Galileo spacecraft was operating normally again after entering safe mode on 31 January Galileorsquos computer had become confused while flying past Jupiterrsquos moon Europa David A Senske a member of the Galileo imaging team at NASArsquos JPL explained that the unusual angle Galileo required for studying Europa had caused the computer to malfunction670

18 February Scientists studying images obtained by NASArsquos Mars Global Surveyor published two reports in the journal Nature about Martian volcanic activity One study reported that the images contained evidence that ldquoten times more lavardquo than previously thought had erupted onto Marsrsquos surface The other study suggested that at least one of Marsrsquos volcanoes was still active671

20 February Soyuz TM-29 launched on a mission to Mir with Russian cosmonauts Viktor M Afanasyev and Ivan Bella Jean-Pierre Haignereacute of the European Space Agency was also on board Soyuz672

23 February

668 NASA ldquoGuidoni To Accompany First Italian Space Station Element to Orbitrdquo news release 99-18 11 February 1999 Reuters ldquoItalian Astronaut To Take Part in Discovery Missionrdquo 9 February 1999 669 NASA ldquoGeneral Aviation To Get a NASA-Industry lsquoLiftrsquordquo news release 99-17 11 February 1999 670 Associated Press ldquoGalileo Craft Resumes Its Jupiter Missionrdquo 13 February 1999 671 William Hartmann et al ldquoEvidence for Recent Volcanism on Mars from Crater Countsrdquo Nature 397 no 6720 (18 February 1999) 586 Alfred S McEwen et al ldquoVoluminous Volcanism on Early Mars Revealed in Valles Marinerisrdquo Nature 397 no 6720 (18 February 1999) 584 Rick Callahan ldquoMars Was Truly Red Planet⎯as in Red-Hot Molten Lava⎯Scientists Say One Volcano Would Have Coated US 4 Miles Deeprdquo Seattle Times (WA) 17 February 1999 672 NASA ldquoUS and Russian Human Space Flight 1961⎯September 30 2000rdquo in Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 2000 Activities (Washington DC 2001)

186


Boeing launched a Delta II rocket from Californiarsquos Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying the first science satellites from Denmark and South Africa and the US Air Forcersquos Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS) The Air Force intended the Boeing-built ARGOS to spend three years in space ldquocollecting data on the Earthrsquos global environment and performing technology demonstrations for top-priority military space programsrdquo as well as testing advanced space technologies for use on the ISS The launches of Denmarkrsquos Orsted and South Africarsquos SUNSAT (Stellenbosch University South Africa satellite) were critical milestones for both countriesrsquo space programs SUNSAT carried remote-sensing experiments to produce images from space at lower cost than larger systems and Denmark deployed Orsted to study Earthrsquos magnetic fields and electrical properties673

25 February The Russian Space Agency signed a cooperative agreement with Russian arms exporter Rosvooruzheniye ldquointended to raise Russiarsquos earnings on the world market and help it develop space hardwarerdquo Russia had earned only US$800 million compared to the United Statesrsquo US$50 billion in commercial satellite launches during 1998 Rosvooruzheniye hoped the deal would help Russia break into the international space markets674

26 February A European Ariane 4 rocket launched carrying two communication satellites from French Guiana The rocket placed into orbit an Arabsat 3A satellite providing television broadcasting and telephone communications to the Middle East North Africa and Southern Europe as well as the Skynet 4E satellite a British armed forces strategic and tactical communications satellite Both craft would move into geostationary orbits675

MARCH 1999

1 March NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin officially announced the change of the name of Lewis Research Center in Cleveland Ohio to ldquoJohn H Glenn Research Center at Lewis Fieldrdquo George W Lewis had been the research director for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) NASArsquos predecessor agency which built the research facility in 1941 Shortly after Lewisrsquos death in 1948 NACA had named the facility ldquoLewis Flight Propulsion Laboratoryrdquo to commemorate him NASA had modified its name to ldquoLewis Research Centerrdquo in 1958 when the facility became part of the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration US Senator R Michael DeWine (R-OH) had proposed the most recent name change for the facility in the FY 1999 appropriations bill for the Departments of Veterans Affairs Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies Congress had enacted the bill into law on 21 October 1998 (Pub L No 105-276) Goldin remarked that naming the Center for both George W Lewis and John H Glenn Jr was an appropriate tribute to ldquotwo of Ohiorsquos famous names⎯one an aeronautic researcher and the other an astronaut legend and lawmakerrdquo676

673 CNNcom ldquoRocket Carries Trio of Science Satellites into Orbitrdquo 23 February 1999 httpwwwcnncomTECH space990223argoslaunchindexhtml (accessed 10 April 2008) 674 CNNcom ldquoRussiarsquos Space Agency Arms Exporter Sign Cooperation Dealrdquo 25 February 1999 675 BBC News ldquoAriane Blasts Off Successfullyrdquo 27 February 1999 676 NASA ldquoNASA Announces Field Center Name Changerdquo news release 99-29 1 March 1999

187


3 March Medialink Worldwide Inc a New Yorkndashbased company specializing in audio-video production and satellite-distribution services announced it had signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to help the agency broadcast its news worldwide via television The two-year contract required Medialink to ldquoestablish and improve the space organizationrsquos relations with broadcast media across Europerdquo as well as to produce video news releases and other products ldquointended to raise the profile of the multinational agencyrdquo677

4 March The Federal Laboratory Consortium appointed Donald J Campbell Director of Glenn Research Center (GRC) as the 1998 Laboratory Director of the Year for Technology Transfer The Consortium honored Campbell NASArsquos first African American center director for his ldquoexemplary contributions to the overall enhancement of technology transfer for economic developmentrdquo Industries had created at least 20 new products from GRC-developed technologies in the previous five years Campbell had also led the Center in establishing the Lewis Incubator for Technology to help entrepreneurs and start-up companies commercialize NASA-developed technologies as well as the Garrett Morgan Commercialization Initiative to help small businesses in Ohio and the Great Lakes region use NASA technologies to become more competitive678

NASA launched its Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) aboard the three-stage Pegasus-XL rocket Orbital Sciences Corporationrsquos L-1011 jet carried the rocket to an altitude of 40000 feet (12200 meters) before releasing it Shortly after WIRErsquos release into orbit it encountered difficulties maintaining its stability and NASA immediately began to investigate the malfunction The satellitersquos scientific instrument was a ldquocryogenically cooled telescope designed to shed light on the history of star formation in the universerdquo as part of NASArsquos Origins program The 125-inch-aperture (318-centimeter-aperture) telescope aboard WIRE had no moving parts and was enclosed in a cooling system to keep its mirrors below -436degF (-260degC) to prevent its own heat emission from overwhelming the light it would detect from space679

5 March The NASA WIRE team declared a spacecraft emergency as ground controllers worked to recover the spacecraft The satellite continued to spin instead of maintaining a stable position in orbit and had a higher temperature than expected NASA formed a spacecraft-recovery team headed by David F Everett of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) as well as an anomaly-investigation board680

8 March

677 Medialink Worldwide Inc ldquoEuropean Space Agency Names Medialink for TV Contractrdquo news release 3 March 1999 678 NASA ldquoCampbell Named Laboratory Director of the Yearrdquo news release 99-32 4 March 1999 679 Associated Press ldquoNASArsquos Star-Gazing Wire Satellite Successfully Launchedrdquo 4 March 1999 Associated Press ldquoSatellite Launchrdquo 5 March 1999 680 NASA ldquoNASA Working To Correct Spin Rate of Wire Spacecraftrdquo news release 99-34 5 March 1999

188


NASA announced the end of the scientific mission of its WIRE satellite after the craft released into space its entire supply of frozen hydrogen a critical element of the mission Preliminary reports indicated that the satellite had released the primary telescope cover three days earlier than planned exposing the telescopersquos cryostat to sunlight The sunlight had warmed the frozen hydrogen in the cryostat which was supposed to maintain the telescopersquos temperature causing the hydrogen to vent into space at a much higher rate than planned Ground controllers believed the fast venting of the hydrogen had caused the satellite to spin but they did not yet know what had caused the release of the telescope cover681

9 March At a briefing at NASA Headquarters scientists explained how sigmoids⎯fiery S-shapes on the Sunrsquos surface⎯would help them ldquopredict when potentially dangerous and disruptive blasts of electrically charged gas will come hurtling toward Earthrdquo These solar explosions or coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have the power to disable power grids damage satellites and scramble communications networks Previously scientists could detect solar explosions once they had occurred providing two or three days for Earth to prepare for potential problems but they were unable to predict the CMEs With the Japanese Yohkoh spacecraftrsquos discovery of sigmoids scientists would be able to issue a warning five or six days in advance of a solar explosion Sarah E Gibson of Cambridge University in England described the sigmoids as slinky-like structures related to the Sunrsquos underlying magnetic field Alphonse Sterling of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan likened the structures to ldquoloaded gunsrdquo with a high probability of discharging Scientists explained further that ldquonot every CME is presaged by a sigmoid but most sigmoids signal very large CMEsrdquo The Yohkoh images showed that the sigmoidrsquos S-shape is the precursor to a CME confirmed by the appearance of an arch shape following the blast682

Joseph G Beerer of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory stated that all of the instruments aboard Mars Global Surveyor were operating and that the craft had begun mapping Mars approximately one year later than originally planned NASA had launched the craft in November 1996 and Surveyor had entered orbit around Mars in September 1997 NASA had delayed the mapping portion of the mission when scientists detected a structural problem with one of the craftrsquos solar panels To avoid placing excessive stress on the panel the flight team had opted to proceed cautiously in aerobraking Aerobraking a pioneering operation was necessary to position the spacecraft for its Mars mapping mission683

12 March NASA selected winners of its Government Inventor of the Year and Commercial Invention of the Year awards Charles E Clagett Associate Head of the Component and Hardware Systems Branch at GSFC won the Government Inventor of the Year Award for his Apparatus for Providing Torque and for Storing Momentum Energy Clagett had developed the apparatus known more commonly as the SMEX ReactionMomentum Wheel for NASArsquos Small Explorer program NASA had used the apparatus successfully in the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer and the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite Paul M Hergenrother Joseph G

681 NASA ldquoWire Spacecraft Instrument Runs Out of Hydrogenrdquo news release 99-37 8 March 1999 682 Deborah Zabarenko for Reuters ldquoSunrsquos Fiery S-Shapes Foretell Massive Solar Blastsrdquo 9 March 1999 683 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoMars Global Surveyor Successfully Completes Aerobrakingrdquo news release 99-006 4 February 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99mgsbrakehtml (accessed 27 December 2007)

189


Smith Jr and Brian J Jensen of Langley Research Center won the Commercial Inventor of the Year Award for their Phenylethynyl Terminated Imide Oligomers fifth composition known as PETI-5 which is a type of glue that holds fibers together The Langley team had developed PETI-5 as an adhesive for use in various aerospace and commercial applications Used in high-speed high-temperature aircraft PETI-5 had netted US$10 million in sales since becoming commercially available684

15 March After assessing its safety aspects officials from the Federal Aviation Administrationrsquos (FAArsquos) commercial space office approved the first space launch from a platform in the sea The FAA issued the launch license to an international launch consortium known as Sea Launch The Boeing Company based in the United States was a 40 percent partner in the consortium The Sea Launch Company planned a demonstration launch for 27 March 1999 from a converted self-propelled oil-drilling platform in the Pacific Ocean The consortiumrsquos initiative to launch communications satellites from a mid-ocean location at the equator offered several advantages such as the capability to lift heavier-than-normal payloads685

26 March Lockheed Martin and its Russian business partners announced the appointment of Wilbur C Trafton as President of International Launch Services (ILS) Trafton had been Acting President since the previous December Lockheed Martin Russiarsquos Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia had established ILS in 1995 as a joint venture to market commercial launch services on Russian Proton rockets and Lockheed Martin Atlas rockets Before joining ILS Trafton had been Associate Administrator for NASArsquos Office of Space Flight In that position he had headed NASArsquos Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise Ray Colloday President of Lockheed Martin Astronautics remarked that Trafton had brought to ILS ldquoyears of experience working on joint space programs with Russiardquo Colladay said that Traftonrsquos background together with his knowledge of the Atlas product line made him ldquoparticularly well suited to lead ILSrdquo686

Researchers reported in the journal Science that NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft had detected hydrogen peroxide on Jupiterrsquos moon Europa Hydrogen peroxide does not occur naturally on Earth A scientific instrument aboard the craft⎯the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS)⎯had aided scientists in their study of Europarsquos surface Working like a prism the instrument had broken up infrared light detecting dark areas of hydrogen peroxide The scientists reported that the chemical was forming constantly on Europa through the process of radiolysis in this case the process involved ldquointense particle radiationrdquo emanating from Jupiter Principal Investigator for NIMS Robert W Carlson explained that hydrogen peroxide begins breaking down almost as soon as it forms and therefore its life on Europa spans no more than a

684 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Top Inventions of the Yearrdquo news release 99-42 12 March 1999 685 Federal Aviation Administration ldquoFAA Issues Launch License to First International Sea Launch Consortiumrdquo news release APA 34-99 15 March 1999 httpwwwfaagovnewspress_releasesnews_storycfmnewsId= 4952 (accessed 27 December 2007) Associated Press ldquoFAA Gives Its OK to 1st Spacecraft Launched from Seardquo Salt Lake Tribune (UT) 16 March 1999 686 Lockheed Martin ldquoWilbur Trafton Named President International Launch Servicesrdquo news release 26 March 1999rdquo httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases1999WilburTraftonNamedPresident Internathtml (accessed 21 December 2007)

190


few months The short lifespan of the chemical limited the scientistsrsquo ability to study the long-term chemical history of Europa However scientists would be able to apply their observations of short-term chemical changes on Jupiter to the study of how the moons of Jupiter interact with the planet as well as to the study of similar processes elsewhere in the solar system687

29 March A dummy satellite reached its orbit 23000 miles (37000 kilometers) above Earth signaling an important success for the Sea Launch Company The international consortium which had invested US$500 million to develop the first commercial marine-based launch system launched the dummy satellite from the Odyssey a converted oil rig located 1400 miles (2300 kilometers) south of Hawaii A Zenit-3SL rocket built jointly by Ukraine and Russia carried the satellite aloft One hour after launch the satellite separated from the third stage of the rocket at an altitude of 1200 miles (1900 kilometers) to continue to its ultimate position688

31 March The ESA signed a 60 million Euro contract with Matra Marconi Space to design and build the Mars Express spacecraft with a planned launch date of June 2003 The agency chose that target date because the planets would be in optimal alignment allowing for minimum travel time to Mars with maximum payload capacity Major space missions can require upwards of 11 years from concept to launch and only six years remained before the 2003 date so the ESA selected a contractor with the means to develop missions quickly and inexpensively Matra Marconi demonstrated that it would be able to streamline the development of Mars Express building and launching the mission for about half the budget required for similar efforts689

APRIL 1999

5 April Advanced Communication Systems Inc announced that the Naval Air Systems Command had awarded its Aerospace Division a five-year contract with option years The Naval Air Systems Command intended the US$46 million Aircraft Structural Life Surveillance contract to assist the US Navy in developing verifying executing and enhancing methods and processes for monitoring aircraft structural fatigue Advanced Communicationrsquos Aerospace Division Vice President Thomas M Brennan remarked that the contract covered air vehicle technology that would ldquohave application across all military services as well as NASA and the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration]rdquo690

6 April NASA appointed Space Shuttle Program Manager Thomas W Holloway as Manager of the International Space Station (ISS) Program effective 19 April Holloway replaced Randolph H

687 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoNASArsquos Galileo Finds lsquoBottle Blondersquo Chemical on Europardquo news release 99-022 25 March 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99europaperoxidehtml (accessed 21 December 2007) R W Carlson et al ldquoHydrogen Peroxide on the Surface of Europardquo Science 283 no 5410 (26 March 1999) 2062ndash 2064 688 Associated Press ldquoSatellite Reaches Orbit After First Commercial Launch from Oceanrdquo 30 March 1999 689 European Space Agency ldquoMission to Mars Set To Revolutionize ESArsquos Working Methodsrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 31 March 1999 690 PR Newswire ldquoACS Wins $46 Million Aircraft Structures Contractrdquo 5 April 1999

191


Brinkley who departed NASA for the private sector NASA named Ronald D Dittemore to replace Holloway as Manager of the Space Shuttle Program Holloway had begun his NASA career in 1963 working in the Mission Control Center where he planned activities for Gemini and Apollo flights He had served as a flight director in Mission Control early in the Space Shuttle Program becoming Chief of the Flight Director Office in 1985 In the 1990s he had served as Deputy Manager for Program Integration with the Space Shuttle Program followed by an appointment as Director of the Phase I Program of ShuttlendashMir dockings Holloway had begun managing the Space Shuttle Program in 1995691

8 April NASA announced the departure of Gretchen W McClain a senior space station official at NASA Headquarters naming as her replacement in an acting capacity W Michael Hawes NASArsquos Chief Engineer for the ISS In 1997 NASA had appointed McClain as Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Development (Space Station) In that position she was responsible for directing the space station budget establishing and implementing station policy coordinating external communications and undertaking liaison activities with the executive branch Congress industry and international partners McClain left NASA to return to private industry692

10 April US Air Force officials announced that despite initial media reports of a successful launch the previous dayrsquos launch of the USA 142 aboard a Titan IVB rocket had failed The USA 142 also called the DSP 19 an American geosynchronous military satellite had launched from Cape Canaveral Florida The failed launch had placed the Defense Support Program satellite in a useless orbit after an attached rocket engine failed This was the first launch attempt since the explosion of a Titan IVA in August 1998 Engineers had designed the Titan IVB an improved version of the Titan IV to survive the electrical malfunction that had led to its predecessorrsquos demise Because of a policy of secrecy concerning military spy satellites the US Air Force had delayed informing its public affairs office about the launch failure Although senior Air Force officials knew of the loss of the satellite they were unable to make the event public until they were certain that the failure had not entailed the release of classified information The Air Force had designed the satellite a highly sensitive 2-ton (1800-kilogram or 18-tonne) infrared telescope to detect missile launches and nuclear detonations693

12 April Celebrating the anniversary of the flight of Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961 Russian President Boris N Yeltsin presented state medals to several dozen cosmonauts and space officials during a Cosmonautrsquos Day ceremony Yeltsin briefly praised Mirrsquos achievements in his remarks at the Kremlin but when Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev presented him with a model of the new ISS Yeltsin asked Koptev whether Mir would stay aloft Koptev

691 NASA Johnson Space Center ldquoHolloway Named Space Station Manager Dittemore To Head Shuttle Brinkley Leaves NASA for Private Sectorrdquo news release J99-9 6 April 1999 httpwwwnasagovcentersjohnsonnews releases1999_2001j99-9html (accessed 15 January 2008) 692 NASA ldquoMcClain To Leave NASA Hawes Named Acting Chief of Space Stationrdquo news release 99-50 8 April 1999 693 Robyn Suriano ldquoAir Force Says Security Questions Delayed Announcementrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 13 April 1999 Spacewarn Bulletin no 546 1 May 1999 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx546html (accessed 28 October 2008)

192


responded in the affirmative but explained during a press conference afterward that private investors had not yet produced funds for Mirrsquos continued operation Vitaly I Sevastyanov a lawmaker and former cosmonaut called on Russians to contribute money to a charity formed to keep Mir in orbit694

13 April NASA announced the discovery of a ldquomysterious class of lsquomiddleweightrsquo black holesrdquo Two teams of astronomers studying x-ray light at NASA and Carnegie Mellon University had independently found evidence of this new class of black hole Astronomers did not know what process had formed the newly discovered black holes 100 to 10000 times as massive as the Sun and located in spiral-shaped galaxies throughout the universe Before this discovery astronomers had known of only two types of black holes 1) stellar black holes formed from the ldquoremains of dead stars several times heavier than the Sunrdquo and compressed to a ldquodiameter of a few miles or lessrdquo and 2) supermassive black holes which have masses equal to 1 million to 1 billion Suns and likely formed in the ldquoearly universe from giant gas clouds or from the collapse of clusters of immense numbers of starsrdquo Edward H Colbert and Richard F Mushotzky of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) had observed hints of the black holes while studying x-rays from 39 nearby galaxies Andrew Ptak and Richard Griffiths of Carnegie Mellon University had studied x-ray light in galaxy M82 which was not one of the set of galaxies that the Goddard team had studied Both teams had identified unique x-ray light indicative of a class of black holes that was neither stellar nor supermassive695

15 April Landsat-7 launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base Although Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space had built Landsat-7 the newest land-surface observation satellite with a design life of five years the companyrsquos spokesperson remarked that 15 years after its 1984 launch Landsat-5 continued in operation The upper stage of the rocket that launched the commercially built Landsat-6 in October 1993 had failed to fire the satellite into orbit destroying the craft and prompting NASA and the US Geological Survey to resume control of the Landsat program in 1994 The latest model in the satellite series carried ldquoa new generation of remote-sensing devices far more sophisticated than the equipment on satellites mapping Earth over the past decaderdquo Raytheon Remote Sensing of Santa Barbara California had built the craftrsquos enhanced thematic mapper to measure solar radiation reflected off the Earthrsquos surface The device was capable of capturing images of Earthrsquos surface in 114-mile-wide (183-kilometershywide) swaths and could resolve images as small as 50 feet (15 meters) across696

16 April Mir Commander Viktor M Afanasyev and French cosmonaut Jean-Pierre Haignereacute replaced scientific equipment on Mirrsquos exterior during a planned 5-hour spacewalk that went overtime The pair overcame ldquonumerous technical blipsrdquo to complete the French portion of the tasks and most of the Russian portion Malfunctions in their spacesuitsrsquo ventilation systems delayed both men in leaving the station Other problems included equipment failure during a simulated repair to an imaginary hole on Mirrsquos superstructure an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve data from a

694 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoMirrdquo 12 April 1999 695 NASA ldquoAstronomers Discover lsquoMiddleweightrsquo Black Holesrdquo news release 99-51 13 April 1999 696 Frank Sweeney ldquoNew Earth Camera Launched into Orbitrdquo San Jose Mercury News (CA) 20 April 1999

193


pollution study in process around the station and the failure to install a new Russian-sponsored experiment to measure cosmic rays Cosmonauts succeeded in other tasks during the spacewalk including the recuperation of a French-sponsored test and the installation on the stationrsquos hull of comet technology designed to gather space dust for analysis Haignereacute was on his second mission to Mir but this was his first spacewalk697

22 April At the 14th Annual NASA Continual Improvement and Reinvention Conference on Quality Management Administrator Daniel S Goldin presented the George M Low Award NASArsquos highest honor for quality and technical performance to four US companies 1) Barrios Technology Inc of Houston Texas for its small-business product 2) Kay and Associates of Edwards California for small-business service 3) Raytheon Support Services Company of Annapolis Junction Maryland for the large-business service category and 4) Thiokol Space Operations of Brigham City Utah for the large-business product category NASA had evaluated the recipients for performance delivery according to agreed cost and schedule innovation management leadership alignment of organizational goals with NASArsquos strategic plans customer orientation and adherence to the Total Quality Management philosophy Thiokol Corporation which had won the Low Award in 1991 and Marshall Space Flight Centerrsquos Contractor Excellence Award in March 1999 had manufactured the reusable solid rocket motor for the Space Shuttle as well as providing launch support and refurbishment services for the motor Over the past seven years Thiokol had never delayed its delivery of hardware Its cost reduction efforts had saved NASA US$152 million698

23 April Scientists Peter Smith of the University of Arizona and Justin Maki of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory published a report in the Journal of Geophysical Research summarizing the results of the Mars Pathfinder Mission After an exhaustive review of more than 17000 images from the Pathfinderrsquos 1997 mission the report had concluded that Marsrsquos air and dirt are yellowish-brown in color not red Viking probes of the 1970s had likewise indicated that Mars is not red but rather yellowish-brown However Mars appears red to the naked eye from Earth and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data had indicated that Mars is red The scientists reported that the detailed analysis using Pathfinder data had revealed that the HST not Pathfinder needed to be recalibrated699

27 April Lockheed Martin launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base an Athena II rocket carrying the Ikonos I satellite a civilian satellite capable of capturing the detailed images that only spy satellites could produce in the past Launch officials had planned to cease communications with the craft 8 minutes after liftoff and to reestablish contact later in the flight but had not been able to reestablish contact once initial communications ended Officials were unable to determine

697 Agence France-Presse ldquoCosmonauts Struggle Through Grueling Space Walk Programrdquo 19 April 1999 698 NASA ldquoFour Aerospace Firms Win NASArsquos Highest Honor for Qualityrdquo news release 99-53 22 April 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-053txt (accessed 7 February 2008) Cordant Technologies Inc ldquoThiokol Propulsion Wins NASArsquos Highest Honor for Qualityrdquo news release 3 May 1999 699 Salt Lake Tribune (UT) ldquoThe Red Planet Mars Is Really Yellowing Brown Pathfinder Discovers What Hubble Missedrdquo 24 April 1999

194


whether the craft had remained in orbit Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems had built the satellite Raytheon had built the communications image processing and other elements of the system and Eastman Kodak had built the digital camera system The camera on board Ikonos I was capable of resolving objects as small as 1 square meter (11 square feet) enabling the satellite to distinguish between a car and a truck Before the manufacture of Ikonos only military satellites had possessed the ability to photograph Earth in such detail700

28 April NASA announced it had completed negotiations on a US$6256 million contract with Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems to purchase the last set of materials required to build 60 new Space Shuttle external fuel tanks Although it was the sixth and last in a series of purchases of fuel tanks this was the first purchase NASA had made consisting entirely of super lightweight tanks The tankrsquos design was the same as that of the lightweight tank design NASA had previously used but the new tanks were 7500 pounds (3400 kilograms) lighter and used a new aluminum lithium alloy NASA and industry partners had developed the lighter alloy 30 percent stronger than the material used to manufacture the lightweight tank to enable the Shuttle to deliver ISS components into the proper orbit701

29 April NASA announced that the magnetometer on board Mars Global Surveyor had revealed ldquobanded patterns of magnetic fields on the Martian surfacerdquo bearing a ldquostriking similarity to patterns seen in the crust of the Earthrsquos sea floorsrdquo Scientists interpreted the patterns as evidence that the Martian crust had shifted in the past The discovery of banded patterns on the floor of Earthrsquos oceans had provided a record of Earthrsquos magnetic history validating the theory of plate tectonics Jack Connerney of NASArsquos GSFC a member of Global Surveyorrsquos magnetometer team explained ldquoif the bands on Mars are an imprint of crustal spreading they are a relic of an early era of plate tectonics on Marsrdquo He added that such tectonic activity on Mars is likely extinct unlike on Earth The spacecraftrsquos magnetometer had been able to capture the magnetic field observations because of the extended aerobraking phase devised to protect against further damage to one of the spacecraftrsquos solar panels The period of aerobraking had permitted the magnetometer to ldquoobtain better-than-planned regional measurements of Marsrdquo Each time it reached the lowest point of its elliptically shaped orbit below the planetrsquos ionosphere the probe encountered minimal magnetic interference and enabling it to obtain additional data702

30 April In its third consecutive failure the second loss within one month the US Air Force launch of a Titan IV rocket from Cape Canaveral Florida placed a geosynchronous military communications satellite the USA 143 also known as Milstar 2 in a useless low-Earth orbit 703

700 John Antczak for Associated Press ldquoContact Fails During Flight Civilian Satellite Lost After Launchrdquo 29 April 1999 701 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center ldquoNASA Completes Purchase of Material for 60 Shuttle External Tanksrdquo news releases 99-069 28 April 1999 httpwwwmsfcnasagovnewsnewsreleases199999-069html (accessed 5 February 2008) 702 NASA ldquoMagnetic Stripes Preserve Record of Ancient Marsrdquo news release 99-56 29 April 1999

195


MAY 1999

1 May After a search of nearly two weeks a team of salvagers funded by the Discovery Channel located the Liberty Bell 7 the Mercury space capsule flown by astronaut Virgil I ldquoGusrdquo Grissom which had been lost at sea on 21 July 1961 Grissom had survived the splashdown and had been rescued from the Atlantic Ocean He had maintained until his death in the 1967 Apollo I launchpad fire that he had done nothing that could have caused the hatch to blow out following the splashdown The cause of the accident remained a mystery and ldquoforever marredrdquo Grissomrsquos otherwise successful 15-minute suborbital flight the nationrsquos second piloted spaceflight The salvagersrsquo remotely operated submersible had located and recorded video of the capsule about 300 miles (480 kilometers) southeast of Cape Canaveral Florida 3 miles (48 kilometers) beneath the surface of the ocean Expedition leader Curt Newport said the video showed that the capsule was in ldquoamazingly good conditionrdquo It was ldquostill shiny in spotsrdquo the window and parachute liner were intact its periscope was extended and the words ldquoUnited Statesrdquo and ldquoLiberty Bellrdquo were ldquoplainly visiblerdquo Newport explained the difficulty of locating the capsule comparing the attempt to find it to searching for the Titanic⎯the Liberty Bellrsquos capsule smaller than one of the Titanicrsquos boilers was hidden in water 05 miles (08 kilometers) deeper than the doomed ocean liner Although the submersible located two cameras and a tape recorder with the capsule which might possibly help to explain why the hatch blew open prematurely it was doubtful that the film from those items would be salvageable after 38 years underwater Although the discovery of the hatch itself would more likely provide an answer Newport estimated that the hatch could be a mile from the capsule The capsule remained in the ocean for recovery at a later unspecified date704

4 May A Boeing Delta III rocket carrying an Orion satellite for Loral Space and Communications malfunctioned shortly after launch leaving the satellite in the wrong orbit In the inaugural launch in August 1998 of a Boeing Delta III a rocket designed to carry twice the payload of the Delta II the rocket had exploded in midair In this second attempt at flight the rocket had survived the initial launch but malfunctioned when the second stage failed to ignite properly leaving Orion in an orbit lower than planned Engineers were uncertain whether it would be possible to boost the satellite using on-board fuel and thrusters705

Lockheed Martin Corporation named former Martin Marietta President and Chief Operating Officer A Thomas Young to lead an independent review of the management engineering manufacturing and quality control processes of its space and missile business specifically Astronautics Missiles and Space and Michoud Space Systems The company had experienced a ldquoseries of expensive and well-publicized failures of its rockets and satellitesrdquo including two in the previous week when a Titan IV placed one military satellite in the wrong orbit and when

703 Associated Press ldquoAir Force Declares Military Satellite Deadrdquo 12 May 1999 Spacewarn Bulletin no 546 1 May 1999 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx546html (accessed 28 October 2008) 704 Washington Times ldquoSalvagers Able To Locate Grissomrsquos Space Capsulerdquo 3 May 1999 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoSunken Spacecraftrdquo 3 May 1999 705 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoNew Boeing Rocket Malfunctions Satellite Enters Wrong Orbitrdquo 5 May 1999

196


another satellite the remote-sensing Ikonos lost contact with the ground The company instructed the panel to submit a report to senior Lockheed management by 1 September706

The US Air Force officially declared the US$12 billion launch of a communications satellite on 30 April a ldquomission failurerdquo A malfunction in the upper stage booster of the Titan IVB rocket had stranded the Milstar satellite in the wrong orbit The Air Force established an investigation into the failure which was its ldquothird costly space failure in nine monthsrdquo707

11 May Following a series of launch failures Lockheed Martin Corporation announced management changes in three of its business sectors Raymond S Colloday President of Lockheed Martin Astronautics retired effective immediately and G Thomas Marsh Executive Vice President of Missiles and Space succeeded him Lockheed named the President of Missiles and Space K Michael Henshaw as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Energy and Environment Sector effective 1 June In that position Henshaw succeeded Robert J Stevens who had served in dual positions but was directed to ldquodevote his full attentionrdquo to his role as Corporate Vice President of Strategic Development Albert E Smith President of Aerospace Electronics Systems and of Sanders a Lockheed Martin company in Nashua New Hampshire succeeded Henshaw as President of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space of Sunnyvale California Lockheed named Walter P Havenstein President of Sanders and Acting President of Aerospace Electronics System a promotion from his former position as Executive Vice President In addition to the recent launch failures Lockheed had been ldquobedeviledrdquo by problems in its space business including a 10 percent reduction in sales in its Space and Strategic Missiles Sector and a 17 percent decline in operating profit after inadequate preparation and cancellations had caused the delay of commercial satellite launches708

12 May The US Air Force ldquoofficially declared deadrdquo its US$800 million Milstar communications satellite Launched atop a Titan IV rocket on 30 April and placed in the wrong orbit the Milstar would ldquonever reach its intended 22300-mile-high [35900-kilometer-high] orbitrdquo US Air Force representative Aaron Renenger stated that the useless satellite ldquocould remain in orbit for hundreds of yearsrdquo but posed no threat to other spacecraft709

17 May The US Air Force announced that it had postponed indefinitely Brigadier General F Randall Starbuckrsquos departure from his command of the 45th Space Wing with responsibility for all

706 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Announces Comprehensive Space Sector Review Former Martin Marietta President Will Chair Independent Panelrdquo news release 4 May 1999 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_ releases1999LockheedMartinAnnouncesComprehensivhtml (accessed 7 February 2008) Tim Smart ldquoPanel To Review Lockheed Failures Former Company President To Head Probe of Aerospace Foul-Upsrdquo Washington Post 5 May 1999 707 Reuters ldquoUS Air Force Investigates Costly Satellite Lossrdquo 4 May 1999 708 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Announces Management Changesrdquo news release 11 May 1999 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases1999LockheedMartinAnnouncesManagementChhtml (accessed 6 February 2008) Tim Smart ldquoLockheed Revamping 2 Units New Leaders Named After Series of Launch Failuresrdquo Washington Post 12 May 1999 709 Associated Press ldquoAir Force Declares Military Satellite Deadrdquo 12 May 1999

197


military and commercial launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida The Air Force spokesperson did not state the reasons for the change Starbuck was to report on 3 June as Director of the Expeditionary Forces Management Team at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia His replacement Brigadier General Kevin P Chilton a former Space Shuttle Commander was to report on 3 June to Patrick Air Force Base to replace Starbuck as Commander of the 45th

Space Wing710

18 May NASA announced the appointment of Baruch S Blumberg winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine as Director of NASArsquos Astrobiology Institute effective immediately NASA had created the Astrobiology Institute in July 1998 a ldquovirtual organizationrdquo comprising NASArsquos centers universities and other scientific entities for the study of ldquothe origin evolution distribution and destiny of life in the universerdquo The Institute with a multidisciplinary focus sought to bring together astronomers biologists chemists exobiologists geologists and physicists to search for the origins of life NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin made the announcement of Blumbergrsquos appointment at Ames Research Center in Mountain View California the site of the Institutersquos headquarters Goldin stated that NASA had tasked the Astrobiology Institute with ldquoproviding the lsquointellectual underpinningsrsquo for building new types of instruments and space probes for finding life in the solar system and beyondrdquo711

20 May President of the Aerospace Industries Association John W Douglass testified before the US Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science Technology and Space that the nation needed an ldquoenlightenedrdquo national space program combining ldquopublic and private investment in synergistic waysrdquo Douglass stated that the government needed to ldquoremove barriers to the growth of commercial spacerdquo He said that the most critical action needed for the industryrsquos growth was renewal of the indemnification provisions of the Commercial Space Launch Act because without such provisions US companies are unable to compete with the government-backed programs of foreign competitors Douglass also testified that US launch ranges lacked modern facilities causing launch delays Such delays ldquowreak havocrdquo in the commercial world because launch sites require more time to reconfigure a launch than convenient for commercial enterprises He cited the export licensing process as a serious problem because it was causing the US commercial space industry to lose market share in both satellite and launch services Additionally Douglass called the ldquodramatic droprdquo in funding for aerospace research and development over the last two decades a ldquoserious structural problemrdquo which the United States should correct to remain competitive in the world market712

US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs Chairperson Fred Thompson (R-TN) announced the findings of a US General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation into NASArsquos computer security Thompson had requested the study which found that government specialists were able to penetrate several mission-critical systems and could have stolen modified or destroyed system software and data GAO had found that 135 of the 155 mission-critical systems

710 Robyn Suriano ldquoStarbuck Staying Put at Helm of 45th Space Wingrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 18 May 1999 711 NASA ldquoNobel Prize Winner To Lead NASA Astrobiology Instituterdquo news release 99-61 18 May 1999 Warren E Leary ldquoSearch for Life Beyond Earth Gets a Leaderrdquo New York Times 19 May 1999 712 ldquoAIA Urges Congress To Remove Barriers to Commercial Space Industryrdquo Aerospace News 20 May 1999

198


reviewed did not meet all of NASArsquos requirements for risk assessment Specifically NASA had not conducted an Agency-wide review of information-technology security since 1991 60 percent of reviewed systems had not been independently audited for security or weaknesses NASA had no security training program and NASA field centers did not report security incidents to a central location GAO had also found that NASA had no policy for determining what type of information its staff could post on public Web sites rendering it vulnerable to Internet attacks NASA also had no policy for protecting mission-critical systems from well-known Internet threats713

The US Air Force announced that Brigadier General Kevin P Chilton would not replace Brigadier General F Randall Starbuck as Commander of the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base but would lead the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento California Starbuck was to remain in command of the 45th Space Wing indefinitely until the Air Force had chosen another successor The change followed ldquothe US launch industryrsquos worst string of accidents in more than a decaderdquo including ldquothree consecutive failures of Air Force Titan rocketsrdquo launched from Cape Canaveral Florida The Air Force also reported that earlier in May a military navigation spacecraft had sustained US$51 million in damage during a thunderstorm The Air Force announced that it had opened a formal investigation into that incident in addition to the investigation President William J Clinton had ordered into the string of launch failures The President had appointed the CIA the US Department of Defense and NASA to carry out that investigation714

25 May An international team of astronomers led by Wendy L Freedman of the Carnegie Observatories held a news conference to announce their findings regarding the age of the universe Freedmanrsquos team had concluded that the universe was between 12 billion and 134 billion years old at least 1 billion years younger than predicted Freedmanrsquos international team had studied eight years of calculations made observations using NASArsquos Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and used a range of celestial measurements to recalculate the age of the universe Among those measurements was the ldquoHubble constantrdquo used in mathematical equations to ldquogauge the speed at which galaxies are accelerating away from each otherrdquo Named for Edwin Hubble who had discovered 70 years ago that the universe is expanding the Hubble constant is an essential piece of the equation determining the age and size of the universe The teamrsquos findings drew criticism from other astronomers Although the Australian physicist Charles H Lineweaver had conducted separate research with the same result as that of Freedmanrsquos team some astronomers associated with the Carnegie Observatories and Harvard University did not agree with the Freedman teamrsquos conclusions Allan Sandage of the Carnegie Observatories stated that he believed that the teamrsquos methodology contained systematic errors and that the final number was not correct Harvard University astronomer Robert P Kirshner had led a third team using the Hubble constant to study the age of the universe but although he calculated a different age than the other teams

713 Federal Document Clearing House ldquoThompson Says NASA Must Tighten Computer Securityrdquo government news release 20 May 1999 US General Accounting Office ldquoInformation Security Many NASA Mission-Critical Systems Face Serious Risksrdquo (report no GAOAIMD-99-47 Washington DC May 1999) httpwwwgaogov archive1999ai99047pdf (accessed 7 February 2008) 714 Robyn Suriano ldquoChilton Not Coming to Cape Starbuck To Remain Indefinitelyrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 21 May 1999

199


Kirshner downplayed the differences in their results remarking that ldquowhat was once a very big disagreement is now narrowing downrdquo715

26 May Indiarsquos government-run space agency began commercial operations with the launch from an island in the Bay of Bengal of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-2 (PSLV) carrying Indian German and South Korean satellites PSLV carried into orbit Oceansat-1 Indiarsquos remote-sensing satellite intended to carry out oceanographic research KITSAT-3 of South Korearsquos Satellite Technology Research Center and the German Aerospace Centerrsquos Tubsat Chairperson of Indian Space Research Organization Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan stated that India could ldquooffer to launch satellites at a much cheaper rate than other countries with launch facilitiesrdquo Without naming how much India was charging for its newly inaugurated launch services Kasturirangan said that in the international market it would cost US$1 million to piggyback a satellite716

27 May Space Shuttle Discovery launched successfully from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida after a one-week delay and a six-month ldquolaunch droughtrdquo NASA had delayed the launch of Mission STS-96 scheduled for 20 May after a violent thunderstorm earlier in the month damaged the Shuttlersquos external fuel tank requiring repairs The previous six months had been the longest period in NASArsquos history without any launches since the Challenger disaster which grounded the Shuttle fleet for two and one-half years However problems with the Shuttle fleet had not caused the delay during recent months Delays in the construction of a critical Russian-built component for the International Space Station (ISS) as well as ongoing problems with a grounded NASA x-ray telescope had disrupted the launch schedule Discoveryrsquos crew included Commander Kent V Rominger Pilot Rick D Husband and Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa Tamara E Jernigan Daniel T Barry Julie Payette and Valery I Tokarev During the 10-day ISS Assembly Mission 2A1 the crew planned to deliver supplies to the ISS to repair US and Russian equipment to install mufflers that would reduce the noise of the Russian fans and to conduct a spacewalk attaching one crane and part of another to the outside of the station STSshy96 (ISS 2A1) was the first mission to dock with the new ISS717

NASA released its first three-dimensional global map of Mars The Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) an instrument aboard NASArsquos Mars Global Surveyor had generated the data for the high-resolution map created from measurements gathered in 1998 and 1999 David E Smith of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center Principal Investigator for MOLA and the lead author of a study published in the journal Science said that according to the new topographic map Mars is slightly lopsided⎯the northern hemisphere is low and smooth but the southern hemisphere had

715 NASA Johnson Space Center ldquoHubble Completes Eight-Year Effort To Measure Expanding Universerdquo news release H99-65 25 May 1999 httpspaceflightnasagovspacenewsreleases1999H99-65html (accessed 2 January 2008) Robert Lee Hotz ldquoScientists Calculate Most Precise Age Yet for Universe Astronomy New Data Hubble Telescope Help Two Separate Teams Put Range at 12 Billion to 134 Billion Yearsrdquo Los Angeles Times 26 May 1999 716 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoIndian Rocket with Korean and German Satellites Takes Offrdquo 26 May 1999 717 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-96 Second International Space Station Flightrdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_ pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-96html (accessed 6 February 2008) Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoSpace Shuttlerdquo 27 May 1999

200


many craters and an elevation of about 5 kilometers (31 miles) higher than that in the north Additionally Smith noted that the depression in Marsrsquos northern hemisphere is ldquodistinctly not circularrdquo indicating that it formed from internal geologic processes rather than an external impact Carl B Pilcher NASArsquos Science Director for Solar System Exploration commented that the data MOLA had collected enabled scientists to know ldquothe topography of Mars better than many continental regions on Earthrdquo Pilcher said that the data would ldquoserve as a basic reference book for Mars scientists for many yearsrdquo inspiring ldquonew insights about the planetrsquos geologic historyrdquo718

JUNE 1999

3 June NASA announced that spacecraft engineers who had worked on NASArsquos new Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) had won an American Electronics Association Technical Achievement Award for the ldquodevelopment of a spacecraft at a record-setting pace of one yearrdquo Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation of Boulder Colorado had built the satellite for NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) assembling the QuikSCAT faster than any construction of a spacecraft since the 1958 Explorer I satellite To accomplish this fast pace NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center had developed a new procurement system called the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition process to accelerate NASArsquos purchase procedure The new acquisition process had enabled NASA to take advantage of ldquolow-cost commercial technology from the burgeoning spacecraft industryrdquo to develop satellite systems such as the QuikSCAT NASA had been able to reduce the time needed to select a contractor and to initiate spacecraft development from one year to 30 days Chip Barnes a QuikSCAT spacecraft system engineer at Ball Aerospace commented that the production had involved a ldquoremarkable effort to get the spacecraft built integrated and tested in an 11-month time framerdquo719

6 June Space Shuttle Discovery landed safely at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida Shortly before returning to Earth astronauts aboard Discovery had completed their last assignment releasing Starshine an educational satellite that 25000 students worldwide would track over the following seven to eight months to calculate the atmospherersquos density The US$1 million Starshine a 19-inch (483-centimeter) sphere ldquocovered with 878 small circular mirrorsrdquo that schoolchildren had polished had become visible from the ground once it had ldquopoppedrdquo from its canister in the Shuttlersquos cargo bay In addition the astronauts had spent six of their 10 days in orbit at the new International Space Station (ISS) where the crew had performed maintenance tasks Discoveryrsquos crew had delivered 2 tons (1800 kilograms or 18 tonnes) of tools water and other supplies for the first permanent crew of the ISS scheduled to arrive in the spring of 2000720

718 NASA ldquoFirst Global 3-D View of Mars Reveals Deep Basin and Pathways for Water Flowrdquo news release 99-66 27 May 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-066txt (accessed 7 February 2008) David E Smith et al ldquoThe Global Topography of Mars and Implications for Surface Evolutionrdquo Science 284 no 5419 (28 May 1999) 1495ndash1503 719 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoQuikscat Team Wins American Electronics Achievement Awardrdquo news release 99-045 3 June 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99aeaawardhtml (accessed 12 February 2008) 720 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Astronauts Release Satellite Head for Homerdquo Washington Post 6 June 1999

201


7 June AlliedSignal Inc agreed to acquire Honeywell Inc in a stock deal worth US$138 billion Aerospace business with revenues totaling about 40 percent of the enterprise was the centerpiece of the agreement in which AlliedSignal added Honeywellrsquos business in cockpit electronics (avionics) and global-positioning equipment to its own market in aircraft engines and collision-avoidance systems An analyst with Frost and Sullivan a California-based market-research firm remarked that the merger put the combined company ahead of Rockwell Collins as ldquothe no 1 player in avionicsrdquo The new company would retain the name of Honeywell and maintain its headquarters at AlliedSignalrsquos base in New Jersey721

8 June Following a series of recent launch failures Boeing Company announced the convening of an independent panel of experts to examine its rocket programs specifically Boeingrsquos Delta Sea Launch and Inertial Upper Stage programs To head the panel Boeing had selected Sheila E Widnall former Secretary of the US Air Force and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology The panel was tasked with examining organizational roles and responsibilities within Boeing recent launch failure investigation findings processes used for government civil and commercial launches acceptance processes for major subsystems and complex assemblies from suppliers and manufacturing assembly transportation and storage activities of Boeing launch programs722

10 June A Boeing Delta II rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida carrying four Globalstar cellular telephone satellites Counting this launch Globalstar Inc had placed in orbit 24 of the 32 satellites the company needed to begin regional cellular phone service The company had planned to begin offering global cellular service in the latter part of 1998 but in September 1998 a failed launch destroyed a dozen satellites aboard a Ukrainian Zenit II rocket Globalstar had launched its first eight satellites on Delta II rockets during February and April 1998 and 12 more satellites early in 1999 on three Russian Soyuz rockets Globalstar was competing with its industry rival Iridium World Communications Inc which had placed a complete constellation of 66 satellites in orbit and had begun offering global cellular service before the end of 1998 To meet Globalstarrsquos launch demands over the summer of 1999 Boeing had increased the pace of manufacturing at its Pueblo Colorado rocket factory In addition Boeing brought 50 to 70 workers from its Delta launch team at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to join its Cape Canaveral workforce in Florida723

11 June Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Chinarsquos Shanxi Province launched two Iridium World Communications satellites into orbit aboard a Chinese Long March 2C rocket replenishing the 66-satellite Iridium constellation which provides telephone paging and fax communication services worldwide The satellite was the 57th launched from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center

721 Ameet Sachdev ldquoAircraft Supply Titan Is Createdrdquo St Petersburg Times (FL) 8 June 1999 722 Associated Press ldquoBoeing Forms Independent Panel To Review Space Failuresrdquo 9 June 1999 723 Todd Halvorson ldquoBoeing and Globalstar Begin Flurry of Launchesrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 11 June 1999

202


and the 15th consecutive successful launch since October 1996 for the Long March rocket series724

15 June The Boeing Company named former cosmonaut Vladimir G Titov as the companyrsquos director for Space and Communications Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States located in Boeingrsquos Moscow office With the appointment Titov became responsible for initiating new business opportunities working closely with Boeingrsquos ISS program members and with Russian and Ukrainian partners on the Sea Launch program A cosmonaut since 1976 Titov had commanded several Soyuz missions served as a mission specialist on two Space Shuttle missions and lived aboard Russiarsquos Mir space station logging 387 days in space including nearly 19 hours of extravehicular activity725

Keith R Hall Assistant Secretary of the US Air Force for Space and Director of the National Reconnaissance Office and Edward C ldquoPeterdquo Aldridge Jr Chief Executive Officer of the Aerospace Corporation which provides technical analysis for the United States and international space programs testified before the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligencersquos Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence regarding three rocket-launch failures All of the launch failures⎯an explosion after launch in August 1998 a missile-warning satellite launched into the wrong orbit on 9 April 1999 and a military communications satellite launched into the wrong orbit on 30 April 1999⎯had involved Lockheed Martin Titan IV rockets The three mission failures had cost taxpayers ldquoat least [US]$3 billionrdquo Hall explained that the US Air Force had traced the three launch failures to human error The investigators had traced the most recent failure specifically to a misplaced decimal point Aldridge whose company had been responsible for checking US Air Force rockets for defects prior to launch explained that the mistake ldquogot throughrdquo despite the system in place to prevent such occurrences Aldridge remarked that his companyrsquos workforce of engineers scientists and support personnel had decreased by 30 percent since 1993 and that the recent launch failures had caused further delays resulting in increased costs for the Titan program Both Aldridge and Hall requested federal funding House Subcommittee Chairperson Michael N Castle (R-DE) asked whether the military rocket program which receives less supervision than NASA needed greater congressional oversight Castle announced that the subcommittee would hold further public hearings on the failures726

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) detached the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-L (GOES-L) from an Atlas IIA rocket returning the satellite to the integration facility Astrotech where engineers planned to recondition its batteries and purge it of gaseous nitrogen to prevent degradation NOAA had planned to store the satellite in orbit ready to replace one of the weather satellites GOES-8 or GOES-10 but GOES-L had been on the launchpad since 6 May On 15 May NASA and NOAA had decided to delay the launch

724 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoIridium Launches Two More Satellitesrdquo 11 June 1999 725 The Boeing Company ldquoDirector Space amp Communications for Russia and CIS Namedrdquo news release 15 June 1999 httpwwwboeingcomnewsreleases1999news_release_990615rhtml (accessed 8 February 2008) 726 Stephen Sobek for Gannett News Service ldquoHuman Error Called Culprit in 3 Rocket Launch Failuresrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 16 June 1999

203


of GOES-L until they had received the results of the investigations into the recent Titan and Delta launch failures727

16 June NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight Joseph H Rothenberg announced several immediate management changes in the Office of Space Flight NASA appointed William F Readdy former Director for Space Shuttle Requirements as Deputy Associate Administrator with primary responsibility for daily management of personnel and program activities Having participated in Shuttle missions in 1992 1993 and 1996 Readdy was an astronaut on flight status eligible for future Shuttle missions NASA appointed W Michael Hawes a former chief engineer for the ISS as Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Development (Space Station) responsible for directing the space station budget establishing and implementing station policy coordinating external communications and serving as a liaison to the executive branch Congress industry and NASArsquos international partners Norman B Starkey replaced Readdy as Director for Space Shuttle Requirements assuming responsibilities that included directing the Space Shuttle budget establishing and implementing Shuttle policy coordinating external communications and serving as a liaison to the executive branch Congress industry and NASArsquos international partners728

17 June NASA disclosed that a sequence of computer commands issued by flight controllers on the ground had failed to fire the ISSrsquos engines placing the uninhabited space station in potential danger The cause of the failure was human error Flight controllers had sent commands directing the new space station to move out of the path of a piece of space junk which posed a danger to the craft A US military organization tracking such objects had predicted that the ldquofairly largerdquo piece of space junk of Russian origin would pass within 06 miles (1 kilometer) of the space station on 13 June However the debris came no closer to the new ISS than 45 miles (72 kilometers) A collision could have destroyed the uninhabited space station NASArsquos Deputy Program Manager for Space Station Operations Frank L Culbertson Jr explained that because the space stationrsquos computers had rejected the flight controllersrsquo faulty commands the station had no motion control for an entire orbit729

19 June A Lockheed Martin Titan II rocket launched successfully carrying JPLrsquos QuikSCAT satellite Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation had built QuikSCAT in 11 months setting an industry record JPL stated that the satellite had ldquoopened its solar arrays as planned an hour after launch and a tracking station in Norway acquired the first signal from the spacecraft 18 minutes laterrdquo NASA had originally scheduled the satellitersquos launch for November 1998 but delayed it when a Titan IVA exploded after launch carrying a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office NASA had postponed the QuikSCAT launch until engineers could determine whether Titan II used any of the hardware that had caused the explosion on the Titan IVA Following the

727 NOAA ldquoWeather Satellite De-mated from Launch Vehicle NOAA and NASA Announcerdquo news release 15 June 1999 httpwwwpublicaffairsnoaagovreleases99june99noaa99GOESDematehtml (accessed 12 February 2008) 728 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Key Space Flight Managersrdquo news release 99-71 16 June 1999 729 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoSpace Stationrdquo 18 June 1999

204


launch of a Titan IVB rocket that placed a Milstar satellite in a faulty orbit NASA had again delayed the QuikSCATrsquos launch pending investigation of the failure The successfully launched QuikSCAT satellite was on a two-year mission with the option of a third year to ldquogather about 400000 detailed measurements of the speed and direction of winds over the oceanrsquos surfacerdquo NASA intended the US$98 million mission to ldquoimprove weather forecasting and detect the onset of conditions like El Nintildeordquo Engineers had designed the QuikSCAT to radiate microwave pulses over wide areas and to listen for the pulsesrsquo echo Those return signals would ldquoallow scientists to determine wind speeds and directions at the surface of the oceans Understanding the interaction [of wind and ocean circulation] is important for weather predictionrdquo Under the terms of NASArsquos first contract using the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition process Ball Aerospace had provided the QuikSCAT spacecraft bus launch interface system integration test launch support and two years of mission operations730

21 June NASA announced the appointment of N Jan Davis Director of the Human Exploration and Development of Space Independent Assurance Office as Deputy Director of the new Flight Projects Directorate at NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville Alabama effective July 1999 NASA had tasked the Directorate with overseeing ldquodevelopment of crucial parts of the ISSrdquo such as connecting Nodes 2 and 3 the Multi-purpose Logistics Modules commercial EXPRESS (EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to the Space Station) racks the environmental and life support systems and the Payload Operations Integration Center Davis had begun her NASA career at MSFC in 1979 leading a team ldquoresponsible for structural analysis of the Hubble Space Telescope the telescope-servicing mission and the Chandra X-ray Observatoryrdquo She had also served as ldquolead engineer for the redesign of the Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster External Tank attach ringrdquo before becoming an astronaut in 1987 Davis had flown on three Shuttle missions logging more than 670 hours in space731

22 June NASArsquos JPL announced that Discover Magazine had awarded NASArsquos Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) program team its Award for Technological Innovation in the exploration category The annual awards ldquohonor teams whose innovations improve the quality of everyday liferdquo The NSTAR program team won the award for its work on the futuristic ion-propulsion system used on NASArsquos Deep Space 1 spacecraft732

24 June

730 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoLockheed Martinrsquos Titan Launches with QuikScat Satelliterdquo 20 June 1999 ldquoSatellite Launched on Weather Missionrdquo New York Times 20 June 1999 Aerospace Daily ldquoQuikSCAT Makes It to Space After Six-Month Delayrdquo 22 June 1999 Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp ldquoBATC Launches Its First Commercial Spacecraftrdquo news release 19 June 1999 httpwwwballaerospacecompagejsppage=30ampid=30 (accessed 25 February 2008) 731 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center ldquoAstronaut Jan Davis Returns to Marshall Space Flight Centerrdquo news release 99-102 21 June 1999 httpwwwmsfcnasagovnewsnewsreleases199999-102html (accessed 11 February 2008) James McWilliams ldquoEx-Astronaut Named Marshall Executiverdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 22 June 1999 732 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoIon Propulsion System Wins Discover Magazine Awardrdquo news release 99shy054 22 June 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99discoverawardshtml (accessed 11 February 2008)

205


NASA successfully launched its Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) telescope aboard a Delta II rocket FUSErsquos three-year mission was to measure the abundance of deuterium or heavy hydrogen which stars consume every day and convert to helium Astronomers hoped that the study of deuterium would help them understand better ldquowhat the universe was like moments after creationrdquo The FUSE scientists sought to determine how much deuterium still exists and how much of it stars consume regularly thereby calculating ldquothe original makeup of the universerdquo NASA had nearly cancelled the FUSE project in the early 1990s because of cost overruns and missed deadlines but in 1994 NASA had asked Johns Hopkins University to manage the project Project managers at Johns Hopkins had scaled down the scientific instrument and used existing equipment instead of developing new technologies The Canadian Space Agency had provided the camera the French Space Agency had provided the spectrograph and other US universities had provided various parts for the telescope Orbital Sciences Corporation had built the spacecraft using an existing design to reduce costs further NASA considered the spacecraft and its launch a success NASArsquos Science Director Edward J Weiler remarked ldquoWe have never had a satellite as sensitive as FUSErdquo733

25 June NASA announced that the WIRE Mishap Investigation Board had concluded that NASArsquos Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) satellite had failed after its 4 March 1999 launch ldquobecause of an incorrectly designed electronics boxrdquo The premature firing of explosive devices⎯the pyrotechnics⎯had caused the instrumentrsquos telescope cover to eject too early in the mission thus exposing the instrumentrsquos frozen hydrogen to the Sun The frozen hydrogen was necessary to cool the telescopersquos infrared detectors The satellite had lost the frozen hydrogen within 48 hours of its launch rendering the instrument incapable of carrying out its scientific mission Darrell R Branscome Deputy Associate Administrator (Enterprise Development) for NASArsquos Office of Space Flight and chairperson of the eight-member investigation team emphasized that there had been no component failure but ldquosimply a case of a design error that allowed power to get to the explosive charges before it should haverdquo The boardrsquos report also concluded that engineers had failed to identify the design errors in the circuitry controlling the pyrotechnical functions Unlike the other systems in the satellite the electronics box design had received no peer review734

28 June NASA announced its decision to end a US$240 million project to land a small spacecraft on a comet so that scientists could learn how to destroy a comet if it were on course to collide with Earth NASA had planned to launch the probe in 2003 and to land it on the surface of Comet Tempel 1 in 2005 After landing the probe was to drill into the nucleus of the comet helping scientists understand the cometrsquos composition Manager of the Space Technology 4 project Brian Muirhead remarked ldquowe know very very little about how comets are formed and what their constituency isrdquo adding that anyone serious about planetary protection must learn more about comets NASArsquos JPL was in the early stages of developing the Space Technology 4Champollion project and had only spent US$10 million NASA had also considered canceling Mars Surveyor 2001 but had already spent US$100 million on that project Other projects were experiencing

733 Washington Times ldquoSpecial Telescope To Look for First Signs of Creationrdquo 25 June 1999 Steven Young for Reuters ldquoNASA Launches Telescope To Seek Universersquos Originrdquo 24 June 1999 734 NASA ldquoInvestigation Finds Design Errors Caused WIRE Spacecraft Failurerdquo news release 99-74 25 June 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-074txt (accessed 11 February 2008)

206


cost overruns also such as the US$15 billion Chandra X-ray Observatory which needed an extra US$60 million to cover last-minute development problems NASA intended to redirect some funds from Space Technology 4 to other missions experiencing funding difficulties such as Chandra735

JULY 1999

5 July The Russian Defense Ministry launched Raduga-1 an early-warning-system satellite for detecting missile launches aboard a Proton-K booster rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Ground controllers lost communication with the satellite minutes after its launch and just as it reached its preliminary orbit both the satellite and the second stage of the rocket crashed in a remote region of Kazakhstan Russian space officials initially stated that the satellite had crashed in an uninhabited area but a Russian television network reported that a large piece of the Proton rocket had fallen onto farmland in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan nearly hitting a house Nobody was injured in the crash736

6 July Pending the outcome of an investigation into the crash of a Russian Proton rocket the previous day the Kazakhstan government banned Russian launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome causing a potentially significant disruption to Russiarsquos commercial satellite launch program Kazakhstanrsquos foreign ministry informed the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that launches from the facility would cease until investigators had identified the causes of the crash and evaluated the damage sustained The ministry did not indicate how long the ban would remain in effect Kazakhstan investigators collected soil and water samples to test for possible hazardous material dispersed in the crash737

8 July Astronaut Charles P ldquoPeterdquo Conrad Jr died at age 69 of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident George W S Abbey Director of Johnson Space Center described Conrad the third man to walk on the Moon as a person who ldquocombined skill and ability with wit and humor to become one of the courageous pioneers who took humankind beyond the bounds of our planetrdquo As an example of Conradrsquos wit Abbey quoted his parody of the famous words Neil A Armstrong had uttered when taking his first steps on the Moon Upon leaving the lunar module Intrepid on 19 November 1969 for his own moonwalk Conrad had quipped ldquoWhoopee Man that may have been a small one for Neil but thatrsquos a long one for merdquo Conrad had been a member of NASArsquos second candidate class of astronauts in 1962 and had flown on the Gemini 5 mission with L Gordon Cooper Jr The pair had spent a record eight days in orbit in August 1965 perfecting techniques for later lunar missions In September 1966 Conrad had commanded the Gemini 11 mission during that mission he and Richard F Gordon Jr had linked their Gemini spacecraft with an Agena target vehicle establishing a record for the fastest space rendezvous and docking in history Conrad had also served as Commander of the Apollo 12 mission in November 1969 with Alan Bean and Richard Gordon as crewmates During his final

735 Matthew Fordahl for Associated Press ldquoComet Landerrdquo 29 June 1999 736 United Press International ldquoRussian Satellite Crashes into Kazakhstanrdquo 6 July 1999 737 Sujata Rao for Reuters ldquoKazakhstan Halts Russian Space Launchesrdquo 6 July 1999

207


spaceflight in 1973 Conrad had been the first Commander of Skylab the first American space station The Skylab crew had spent 28 days in space establishing another endurance record Conrad had won the Congressional Space Medal of Honor two NASA Distinguished Service Medals two NASA Exceptional Service Medals two Navy Distinguished Service Medals and two Distinguished Flying Crosses738

Ukrainersquos Prime Minister Valery Pustovoitenko appealed to Kazakhstanrsquos Premier Nurlan Balgimbayev to permit the launch of the Okean-O research satellite aboard a Ukrainian Zenit rocket despite the launch ban following the 5 July crash of a Russian rocket Ukrainian officials expressed concern that a delay beyond 15 July with the rocketrsquos lengthy stay on the launchpad would endanger the prospect of a successful launch The Ukrainian space program seeking to compete in the lucrative commercial space market was under pressure to make a successful launch after the crash in September 1998 of a Zenit rocket destroying 12 of Globalstar Incrsquos communications satellites739

10 July After a two-day delay because of high-altitude winds the Boeing Company successfully launched a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida carrying four Globalstar communications satellites An hour after launch the rocket deployed the 988-pound (448-kilogram) satellites in pairs bringing the total number of satellites in Globalstar Incrsquos constellation to 28 4 less than the 32 needed to begin network service740

13 July Donald D Engen Director of the Smithsonian Institutionrsquos National Air and Space Museum and William Ivans an internationally known award-winning pilot from La Jolla California died when the motorized glider that Ivans was piloting broke apart and crashed Investigators were attempting to determine the cause of the accident Larry Sanderson President of the Soaring Society of America remarked that ldquoboth victims were top pilots in lsquoan extremely well-built aircraft So it had to be a very unusual set of circumstances that stressed the craftrsquordquo Both Engen and Ivans were officers of the Soaring Society and Ivans a pioneer in the field had won many awards for high-altitude soaring Engen had retired from the US Navy in 1978 with the rank of vice admiral and had been a test pilot for many years After retiring from the Navy he had served for two years on the National Transportation Safety Board and as administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration between 1984 and 1987 He became Director of the National Air and Space Museum in 1996 following the resignation of Martin O Harwit741

President Nursultan Nazarbayev set Kazakhstanrsquos conditions for permitting Russia to launch a Progress cargo craft carrying supplies to the Mir space station scheduled to lift off from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 14 July Kazakhstan had suspended all Russian launches from the facility following the crash of a Russian Proton-K rocket on 5 July Nazarbayevrsquos terms for

738 NASA Johnson Space Center ldquoThird Man To Walk on Moon Dies in Motorcycle Accidentrdquo news release J99shy24 9 July 1999 httpwwwnasagovcentersjohnsonnewsreleases1999_2001j99-24html (accessed 2 January 2008) 739 Pavel Polityuk for Reuters ldquoUkraine Appeals for Rocket Launch amid Kazakh Rowrdquo 740 Justin Ray ldquoThird Try Was the Charm for Delta 2 Rocketrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 11 July 1999 741 Washington Times ldquoAir and Space Director Killed in Glider Crashrdquo 14 July 1999

208


permitting the launch of the Progress craft included Russiarsquos payment of its US$300 million debt for the lease of Baikonur Cosmodrome and a visit of high-level Russian officials to the Proton-K rocketrsquos crash site742

Kenneth R Timmerman President of Middle East Data Project Inc testified before the US House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics that Iran was designing a new missile named Kosar capable of reaching the continental United States Timmerman stated that NASA had given Russian aerospace entities millions of dollars for the Russian space program but that Russia had diverted those funds to support Iranrsquos missile program House Committee on Science and Technology Chairperson F James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-WI) remarked that each new report of Russian proliferation activities raised the possibility that NASA was inadvertently subsidizing Russian industries which the United States believed were helping Iran to threaten the United Statesrsquo friends and allies in the Middle East and in Europe Henry D Sokolski Executive Director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center testified that legislation sponsored by Representative Benjamin A Gilman (R-NY) was critical to ensuring Russiarsquos cooperation with the nonproliferation efforts of the United States Gilmanrsquos legislation would require the President of the United States to determine whether Russia was ldquoassisting Iranrsquos programs to develop weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missilesrdquo If the President determined that Russia was furnishing such aid to Iran the federal government would prohibit NASA from ldquotransferring US tax dollars to the [Russian Space Agency] or any enterprise under the [Russian Space Agency] jurisdictionrdquo An unnamed NASA official testified that to replace the operational capabilities that Russia provided to the International Space Program would cost as much as US$5 billion743

14 July The Boeing Company announced that it had completed negotiations on a cooperative agreement with NASA to develop an experimental space plane The US$173 million contract stipulated that Boeing and the federal government share costs equally Boeing and NASA hoped that the X-37 space plane previously called the Future-X Pathfinder would ldquoserve as a test bed for new reusable launch technologiesrdquo helping to achieve the ldquogoal of reducing the cost of placing space vehicles and cargo into orbitrdquo Boeing envisioned a vehicle that would be ldquounpiloted autonomously operated and capable of speeds up to Mach 25 while demonstrating aircraft-like operationsrdquo NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center led the X-37 government team comprising the US Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base and NASA facilities including Ames Research Center Kennedy Space Center Goddard Space Flight Center Langley Research Center and Dryden Flight Research Center744

Kazakhstan partially lifted its ban on launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome permitting a Russian Progress cargo spacecraft to deliver supplies to the Mir space station Kazakhstan had agreed to permit the Progress launch after receiving Russiarsquos promise to pay a US$115 million

742 Sujata Rao for Reuters ldquoKazakhstan Sets Terms for Russian Space Launchrdquo 13 July 1999 743 Audrey Hudson ldquoAnalyst Fears US Helps Iran Develop Missile via Moscow Russia Diverts Aid from Its Space Agencyrdquo Washington Times 14 July 1999 744 The Boeing Company ldquoNASA Boeing Sign X-37 Vehicle Agreementrdquo news release 14 July 1999 httpwww boeingcomnewsreleases1999news_release_990714thtml (accessed 19 February 2008) John OrsquoDell ldquoCalifornia Southland Focus Boeing NASA Agree on Space Plane Contractrdquo Los Angeles Times 15 July 1999

209


fee for the use of the launch facility Russia had agreed to pay US$50 million in cash by November 1999 and US$65 million in goods by 2000 Kazakhstanrsquos launch ban on Proton-K rockets remained in effect745

16 July A Russian Progress M42 cargo spacecraft launched with a Soyuz-U rocket to deliver supplies to the Mir space station Supplies included equipment necessary to keep an uninhabited station operational and equipment for conducting a controlled reentry in the event that Russia could not obtain the resources necessary to continue operation The launch was the first since Kazakhstanrsquos partial relaxation of a launch ban at Baikonur Cosmodrome746

17 July A Russian rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying a scientific satellite into orbit It was the second launch from the facility since Kazakhstan partially lifted the launch ban imposed following the crash of a Proton-K rocket on 5 July747

19 July The United Nations opened a conference scheduled to run through 30 July on space technology and exploration the first such conference held in 17 years The primary goals of the Unispace III conference included 1) adopting the Vienna Declaration which provided ldquointernational guidelines for the use and environmental protection of outer spacerdquo 2) addressing the cleanup of debris in space including satellites or parts of spacecraft no longer in use but continuing to orbit and 3) ensuring the accessibility of information from outer space to all people regardless of a countryrsquos ability to support costly space exploration programs In his opening remarks UN Secretary General Kofi Annan ldquourged the peaceful use of outer spacerdquo suggesting the necessity of a legal instrument such as the Vienna Declaration to prevent space from ldquobecoming another arena of military confrontationrdquo Because joint development programs between the UN and private industries were necessary to achieve the conferencersquos goals businesses involved in space technology participated in Unispace for the first time

20 July The salvage team lifted astronaut Virgil I ldquoGusrdquo Grissomrsquos Mercury capsule to the surface of the Atlantic Ocean just one day before the 38th anniversary of the astronautrsquos historic suborbital flight The second American in space Grissom had flown in his Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule on 21 July 1961 After its ocean landing the capsulersquos hatch had blown open prematurely nearly drowning him Both the location of the capsule and the cause of the accident had remained a mystery until 1 May 1999 when a salvage team led by Curt Newport and funded by the Discovery Channel had discovered the spacecraft 3 miles (48 kilometers) beneath the ocean Even after the team had retrieved the capsule the cause of the accident remained a mystery The

745 Reuters ldquoKazakhstan Lifts Space Ban Russian Launch Clearedrdquo 14 July 1999 Associated Press ldquoRussiashyKazakhstan-Spacerdquo 14 July 1999 746 Spacewarn Bulletin no 549 1 August 1999 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx549html (accessed 29 October 2008) 747 Washington Times ldquoRussian Satellite Launched in Kazakhstanrdquo 18 July 1999

210


salvage team had yet to locate the capsulersquos hatch which Newport believed had the greatest potential for determining what had caused the malfunction at the end of Grissomrsquos flight748

23 July During a spacewalk lasting nearly 6 hours cosmonauts Viktor M Afanasyev and Sergei V Avdeyev searched for the source of a leak that was slowly causing pressure loss in Mir they also attempted to install an antenna needed for an experiment Both efforts failed The leak first detected in late June 1999 was ldquoabove the allowable limitrdquo Although it posed no immediate threat to the space station if the leak continued for three more months the station would become uninhabitable749

After two delays Space Shuttle Columbia launched on Mission STS-93 from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida under the command of Eileen M Collins NASArsquos first female Shuttle commander in 38 years of human spaceflight Commander Collinsrsquos crew comprised Pilot Jeffrey S Ashby and Mission Specialists Steven A Hawley Catherine G Coleman and Michel Tognini Columbia carried on board the US$15 billion Chandra X-ray Observatory previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) as well as secondary payloads and experiments⎯the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System to capture ultraviolet imagery of the Earth Moon Mercury Venus and Jupiter plant growth experiments biological cell-culture studies and the Treadmill Vibration Information System and High Definition Television System which the crew planned to test NASA had scrubbed both of the Shuttlersquos earlier launch attempts late in the countdown halting the 20 July launch 6 seconds before blastoff because of a technical malfunction and the 22 July launch because of stormy weather The US Air Force and the Boeing Company postponed a commercial launch to permit NASA a third chance to deliver Chandra into orbit However the Shuttle continued to have problems During the 8-minute climb into outer space a 05-second-long short circuit shut down computers controlling two of the Shuttlersquos three main engines Furthermore Columbia was 4000 pounds (1800 kilograms) short of liquid oxygen fuel in its external fuel tank leaving the craft in orbit 7 miles (11 kilometers) lower than planned Fuel carried aboard the orbiter made up the shortfall Seven hours into the flight the crew deployed Chandra into orbit accomplishing its primary mission750

27 July Commander Eileen M Collins became the first woman to ldquoland a spaceship of any kind anywhererdquo when she guided Space Shuttle Columbia to a safe late night landing at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida the 12th nighttime touchdown in the Shuttle programrsquos 95-flight history A few hours after the landing NASA confirmed that hydrogen fuel had leaked from one of the

748 Los Angeles Times ldquoGrissomrsquos Mercury Capsule Recoveredrdquo 21 July 1999 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoExpedition Begins To Recover Mercury Capsule from Oceanrdquo 2 July 1999 749 Nikolai Pavlov for Reuters ldquoMir Crew Spacewalks To Seek Pressure Leakrdquo 23 July 1999 Kansas City Star (MO) ldquoAntenna Failure Prevents Mir Test Two Cosmonauts Give Up After Trying To Fix It for Six Hoursrdquo 24 July 1999 750 USA Today ldquoShuttle Lifts Off with Woman in Commandrdquo 23 July 1999 Brad Liston for Reuters ldquoShuttle Roars into History After Launch Problemsrdquo 23 July 1999 Beth Dickey ldquoAfter Hiccup at Liftoff Shuttle Puts Telescope into Spacerdquo New York Times 25 July 1999 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-93 Chandra X-ray Observatoryrdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-93html (accessed 29 October 2008)

211


craftrsquos main engines during liftoff on 23 July Columbiarsquos mission lasting just five days was the shortest planned flight in nine years751

28 July Two Russian cosmonauts carried out a successful 5frac12-hour spacewalk outside Mir installing equipment and opening the antenna that they had failed to unfold properly in a previous spacewalk Russian space officials said that the spacewalk was most likely the last to occur at Mir This was the seventh spacewalk for Mir Commander Viktor M Afanasyev and the eighth spacewalk for Flight Engineer Sergei V Avdeyev who had spent a record-making cumulative total of 717 days in space752

NASA announced that after Space Shuttle Columbiarsquos return to Earth on the night of 27 July engineers had found ldquothree little holesrdquo in its right engine nozzle confirming that the Shuttle had leaked hydrogen fuel during liftoff The holes 025 inches (064 centimeters) in size had caused the craft to lose up to 5 pounds (23 kilograms) of fuel during each second of its 8frac12-minute climb to orbit753

29 July NASA scientists announced that because the Deep Space 1 spacecraft had aimed its camera incorrectly when it flew within 15 miles (24 kilometers) of a small asteroid named Braille the craft had failed to capture an image However the craft had succeeded in its primary mission to test 12 new technologies during the flyby thereby validating the instrumentsrsquo future use in solar-system probes Deep Space 1 was equipped with ldquoa mind of its ownrdquo enabling it to navigate through space without much assistance from ground control The craft had traveled at 35000 miles (56000 kilometers) per hour relative to the asteroid which was 117 million miles (188 million kilometers) from Earth The flyby of the Braille asteroid the final test of Deep Space 1rsquos Autonomous Navigation System had been the closest any spacecraft had come to an object in our solar system without landing754

31 July NASArsquos Lunar Prospector crashed into a frozen crater on the Moon but detected no water upon impact Scientists believing that the crater held frozen water had hoped that the ldquofire and violence of the collision would vaporize icerdquo sending a ldquowet plume detectable by special instruments spiraling into the lunar skyrdquo Telescopes equipped with ultraviolet detectors recorded hours of data after the impact searching for the ldquochemical signaturerdquo of water The Prospector mission which had lasted 18 months following its 6 January 1998 launch had used five instruments to ldquomap the magnetic chemical and gravitational character of the [M]oonrdquo755

751 Atlanta Journal (GA) ldquoShuttle Columbia Woman Commander Kept Cool During Snafusrdquo 28 July 1999 Los Angeles Times ldquo1st Shuttle Led by Woman Lands Safely in Floridardquo 28 July 1999 752 Reuters ldquoMir Cosmonauts Make Final Spacewalkrdquo 28 July 1999 753 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoNASA Confirms Hydrogen Leak in Columbia Shuttlerdquo 29 July 1999 754 Washington Times ldquoSpacecraft Misses Asteroid Snapshot Camera Canrsquot See Rock Called Braillerdquo 30 July 1999 755 Associated Press ldquoSpacecraft Smashes into Moon Scientists Hoping for Evidence of Ice Vapor in Lunar Skyrdquo Washington Post 1 August 1999

212


AUGUST 1999

2 August NASA announced the student winners of the 1998ndash1999 National General Aviation Design Competition sponsored by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) A team of 33 students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach Florida had produced the winning design ldquoaimed at attracting customers who want to move from propeller-driven craft to jets without needing a significant increase in pilot skillrdquo A 13-member team from Pennsylvania State University in University Park Pennsylvania won second place for their ldquoBaracudardquo an acronym for Boldly Advanced and Refined Aircraft Concept Under Development for AGATE a national general aviation revitalization program The teamrsquos ldquoconventional-layout modern-composite airplane featuring advanced aerodynamics systems and avionicsrdquo was a four-place single-engine jet-powered aircraft A three-university team⎯the University of Virginia Old Dominion University in Hampton Virginia and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn New York⎯won third place for a ldquohighly innovative design known as the lsquoYeah Manrsquordquo a craft with two tail booms each with vertical tails The aircraft which NASA scientists had tested in the Full Scale Wind Tunnel at Langley Research Center showed good aerodynamic characteristics756

5 August NASA selected two software programs for the 1999 NASA Software of the Year award from 50 entries representing more than 150 corporations universities and government laboratories In the 1970s NASArsquos Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field (GRC)⎯at that time the Lewis Research Center⎯had begun to develop the first award-winning program the GenoaProgressive Failure Analysis Software System to simulate and predict ldquoaging and failure in all sorts of structural materials including high-tech alloys and ceramics used in airplanes cars engines and bridgesrdquo In 1998 NASArsquos Small Business Innovation Research program had commercialized the software primarily for the use of aircraft manufacturers Ames Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) had developed the other winning software the Remote Agent program a ldquoprecursor to self-aware self-controlled robots exploring rovers and intelligent machinesrdquo NASA had used the Remote Agent software to plan three days of activities for Deep Space 1 and the spacecraft had ldquocarried out the plan without ground interventionrdquo757

9 August SPACEHAB Inc and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) signed a contract granting SPACEHAB the use of one of the CSArsquos experiment lockers on the International Space Station (ISS) beginning in May 2001 According to the agreement between the two organizations the CSA had committed to commercializing half of its allocated space aboard the space station a global first in space commercialization758

756 NASA ldquoNASA and FAA Pick Student Aircraft-Design Contest Winnersrdquo news release 99-87 2 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-087txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 757 NASA ldquoNASArsquos 1999 Software of the Year Makes Cars Safer and Spacecraft Cheaperrdquo news release 99-90 5 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-090txt (accessed 15 February 2008) NASA ldquoNASA SBIR Success-Genoardquo httpsbirgsfcnasagovSBIRsuccessesss3-048texthtml (accessed 22 February 2008) 758 SPACEHAB Inc ldquoGround Breaking Deal Opens New Space Frontier SPACEHAB Buys First Commercial Rights Aboard International Space Stationrdquo news release 9 August 1999 httpwwwspacehabcomnews1999 99_08_09htm (accessed 25 February 2008)

213


10 August NASA and the National Research Council of Canada signed a protocol at the Aerospace North America conference in Vancouver British Columbia founding the Aircraft Icing Research Alliance and drafting the Aircraft Icing Research Strategic Plan to ldquoprovide a framework for collaboration to develop critical aircraft icing technologiesrdquo The Alliance planned to add more partners such as the United Statesrsquo FAA Environment Canada Transport Canada and other government agencies universities industrial firms and organizations interested in aviation-icing research759

11 August Robert Thomas ldquoRTrdquo Jones who had ldquoled the development of the swept-back jet wing design that revolutionized air travel and enabled planes to break the sound barrierrdquo died at the age of 89 Jones had begun designing the swept-back wings in 1944 when airplane wings were perpendicular to the fuselage while working at NACA (National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics) NASArsquos predecessor agency In 1945 Jones had conducted airflow studies showing that a cone-shaped shock wave cut across the tips of straight wings causing deterioration at Mach 1 the speed of sound Jones had concluded that a swept-back design would preserve the wings and reduce drag Although his idea was initially ignored ldquovirtually every commercial and military jet uses the design todayrdquo Jonesrsquos later research had included work on the oblique wing ldquomounted on a pivot on top of the fuselagerdquo The oblique wing maintained a right angle to the fuselage for maximum lift during takeoff but the pilot could manipulate it so that at cruising altitude one wing tip pointed forward and one backward saving fuel generating less engine noise and eliminating the sonic boom Although Jonesrsquos oblique wing design had never advanced beyond the testing stage some aeronautical designers continued to study its possibilities760

NASArsquos largest balloon⎯39 million cubic feet (11 million cubic meters) in volume and 60 stories high⎯lifted off from Lynn Lake in Manitoba Canada to carry out a 38-hour flight more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) above Earth The balloon carried a Japanese-built instrument the Superconducting Solenoidal Magnet to collect particles of antimatter Shuji Orito of the University of Tokyo led the project called BESS (Balloon Borne Experiment with a Superconducting Solenoidal Magnet) NASA sponsored the United Statesrsquo portion of the mission and Monbusho sponsored the Japanese portion761

Kazakhstanrsquos Finance Minister Uraz Dzhandosov announced that Russia had paid US$125 million as a first installment of its debt to Kazakhstan fulfilling a condition of the agreement between the two countries Kazakhstan had demanded the payment as part of the terms of lifting the launch ban it had imposed on Russia when a Russian Proton rocket exploded after liftoff from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan762

759 NASA ldquoNASA and Canada Join Forces To Combat Aircraft Icingrdquo news release 99-92 11 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-092txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 760 Washington Post ldquoRobert Jones Dies Led Breakthrough on Wing Designrdquo 15 August 1999 761 NASA ldquoBalloon-Borne Instrument Collects Antimatterrdquo news release 99-93 16 August 1999 httpwwwnasa govhomehqnews199999-093txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 762 Russia Today ldquoRussia Pays First Part of Baikonur Debt 12 August 1999

214


China confirmed that it had fired its new Dong Feng-31 (DF-31) missile during a test launch on 2 August publicizing details of the successful launch of the long-range ground-to-ground intercontinental strategic ballistic missile The Chinese Guangzhou Daily reported that the ldquothree-stage solid-fuel rocket was launched from northern Shanxi province and crashed down in the western territory of Xinjiangrdquo Janersquos Defence Weekly estimated that the DF-31 had an 8000-kilometer (5000-mile) range and was capable of carrying a 700-kilogram (1500-pound) nuclear warhead Robert Karniol a foreign correspondent covering Asia for the defense industry publication Janersquos remarked that ldquothe DF-31 should be operationally deployed by China in 2000rdquo and that the country expected to build 10 to 20 of the missiles some replacing 1960s-era missiles with half the range of the DF-31 The Guangzhou Daily also reported that China had developed the technology for piloted spaceflight Wang Xinqing head of the China Carrier-Rocket Research Institute which designs military- and civilian-use rockets stated that the core of the program was the development of a new series of carrier rockets Long March 5 Wang Xinqing also refuted a report by the US Congress alleging that China had stolen the United Statesrsquo missile and nuclear warhead technology insisting that China had perfected the rocketry before the United States had achieved it763

The US General Accounting Office (GAO) published a report critical of the X-33 program jointly sponsored by NASA and Lockheed Martin concluding that the program was unlikely to meet its original cost schedule and performance goals because of increased costs delayed testing and revised objectives However NASA and Lockheed Martin responded that they expected the program to ldquoachieve technical requirements such as demonstrating the feasibility of building large liquid hydrogen fuel tanks made of graphite composite materialrdquo The purpose of the X-33 Program was to develop and demonstrate advanced technologies for use on future reusable launch vehicles such as the companyrsquos VentureStar TM764

12 August NASArsquos GRC announced that for the first time researchers had suspended particles of frozen hydrogen in liquid helium the first step toward creating new rocket fuels that could revolutionize rocket-propulsion technology Researchers had poured small amounts of liquid hydrogen at a temperature of 14 K (-435degF or -259degC) just above freezing point onto the surface of liquid helium of a temperature just above absolute zero at 4 K (-452degF or -269degC) The liquid hydrogen had formed small solid hydrogen particles which floated on the surface of the helium Scientists planned to use the suspension to create ldquofuturistic atomic fuelsrdquo making it possible to develop rockets with ldquoliftoff weights one-fifth that of todayrsquos [rockets] or with payloads three to four times more massiverdquo In addition the suspension could ldquoreduce or eliminate on-orbit assembly of large space vehiclesrdquo thereby contributing to the exploration of the entire solar system765

763 Matt Pottinger for Reuters ldquoChina Details Missile Test Planned Space Flightrdquo 12 August 1999 764 U S General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Transportation Status of the X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle Programrdquo (report no NIASD-99-176 Washington DC 11 August 1999) httpwwwgaogovarchive1999ns99176pdf (accessed 4 March 2008) 765 NASA Glenn Research Center ldquoRocket Fuels Researchers Suspend Frozen Hydrogen Particles in Heliumrdquo news release 99-65 12 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovcentersglennnewspressrel199999_65html (accessed 25 February 2008)

215


A burst of radiation from Jupiter hit NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft as it gathered data about Jupiterrsquos moon Callisto causing computer malfunctions However NASA reported ldquorecently loaded software automatically restarted command sequences minimizing the loss of science datardquo James K Erickson of NASArsquos JPL Project Manager of the Galileo Program remarked on the highly variable nature of the radiation explaining that previously the spacecraft had entered safe modes during radiation bursts resulting in the loss of data Galileorsquos instruments had only lost about 1 hour of data during the radiation burst successfully recording data about magnetic fields and particles Project scientists expected that the data would help them study the event To emphasize the value of the software Erickson stated ldquoIf we didnrsquot have the automatic restart software we wouldnrsquot be getting any data at the encountersrdquo766

16 August A team of astrophysicists at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center announced that they had found the first direct evidence of a black hole pulling in matter Using the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics an x-ray satellite belonging to Japan and the United States and launched in 1993 the team observed superheated gas in the accretion disc of the black hole Previously scientists had only ldquoseenrdquo the phenomenon by observing these accretion discs or ldquothe swirling matter circling around as it is being pulled into the black holerdquo However this time the Goddard team had observed a ldquostrange featurerdquo buried in the x-rays that the gas emitted Energy had been redshifted an occurrence described as an ldquoastronomical Doppler effectrdquo because just as the compression of sound waves for example causes the sound of a siren to rise and fall as it passes an observer light stretches as it speeds away from Earth The team observed light that was being stretched⎯redshifted⎯moving at about 65 million miles (105 million kilometers) per hour toward a black hole in galaxy NGC 3516767

Swedish state prosecutors charged Charlie Malm and Joel Soederberg of Stockholm who had broken into NASA computer systems between October and December 1996 with violating Swedenrsquos computer laws and with buying stolen equipment In the trial scheduled for sometime in the fall NASA intended to demonstrate that the pair had ldquocaused NASA great economic lossrdquo Malm and Soederberg had also broken into the computer systems of the US Air Force US Army and US Marines as well as the system of a British Internet company768

19 August NASA announced its selection of three very small satellites each about 16 inches (41 centimeters) across and 8 inches (20 centimeters) high to conduct the Nanosat Constellation Trailblazer mission the fifth mission in NASArsquos New Millennium program NASA had developed the New Millennium program to test technology for future missions with the goal of dramatically reducing the weight size and costs of missions while simultaneously increasing science capabilities NASA scheduled the US$28 million Nanosat Constellation mission to launch in 2003 as a secondary payload on an expendable launch vehicle769

766 Michael A Dornheim ldquoUnexpected Jovian Radiation Hits Galileordquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 151 no 8 (23 August 1999) 42 767 Reuters ldquoEvidence of Super Gravity Reported Backs Black Hole Astronomy Theoryrdquo Washington Times 17 August 1999 768 Susanna Loof for Associated Press ldquoSwedes Charged with US Hackingrdquo 16 August 1999 769 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Miniature Spacecraft To Test Space Technologyrdquo news release 99-95 19 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-095txt (accessed 15 February 2008)

216


24 August NASA announced that it had completed negotiations for a contract worth up to US$173 billion to purchase 73 Space Shuttle reusable solid rocket motors from the Thiokol Propulsion company Each Shuttle flight used two of these motors as the primary component of the Shuttle solid rocket boosters providing 66 million pounds (29 million kilograms) of thrust 714 percent of the thrust needed for liftoff The contract covered the manufacture and delivery of the new motor components through September 2004 as well as postflight review of the last motors flown through 2005770

SPACEHAB Inc the first company to ldquocommercially develop own and operate habitable modules that provide laboratory facilities and logistics re-supply aboard NASArsquos Space Shuttlesrdquo and leading global provider of commercial payload-processing services participated in a Brazilian industry conference Brazsat a Brazilian commercial space company hosted the Third Commercial Space Workshop in Rio de Janeiro on 23 and 24 August North American South American and European industry and government leaders attended the workshop where SPACEHABrsquos Chief Executive Officer Shelley A Harrison delivered one of two keynote addresses Participants at the workshop which had the theme ldquoCommercial Space Technologies and its Benefits in the New Milleniumrdquo presented ldquostate-of-the-art space technologies research spin-offs and applications in areas of microgravity research remote sensing telecommunications satellites distance learning telemedicine and other disciplinesrdquo of human spaceflight771

25 August Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation announced that NASA had selected the company to build two spacecraft for the Space Technology 3 (ST-3) Mission part of NASArsquos New Millenium Program The contract valued at US$50 million covered the development and manufacture of the two spacecraft as well as the integration and testing of completed systems NASA planned for the two spacecraft flying 05 miles (08 kilometers) apart to demonstrate interferometry simulating a single large telescope NASArsquos JPL was responsible for developing the interferometer and formation-flying sensing technologies as well as for managing the mission772

26 August NASA released two initial images from its Chandra X-ray Observatory One image traced ldquothe aftermath of a gigantic stellar explosion in such stunning detailrdquo that scientists believed they had detected evidence of a neutron star or black hole near the center The second image showed ldquoa powerful x-ray jet blasting 200000 light-years into intergalactic space from a distant quasarrdquo

770 NASA ldquoNASA Thiokol Complete $17 Billion Shuttle Motor Agreementrdquo news release c99-c 24 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract1999c99-ctxt (accessed 15 February 2008) 771 SPACEHAB Inc ldquoSPACEHAB Participates in Key Brazilian Industry Conference SPACEHAB CEO Addresses Industry Officials on Essential Space Initiativesrdquo news release 31 August 1999 httpwwwspacehab comnews199999_08_31htm (accessed 3 March 2008) 772 Ball Aerospace amp Technologies Corporation ldquoBATC Wins NASA Contract for Two Spacecraft To Test Space Technologyrdquo news release 25 August 1999 httpwwwballaerospacecompagejsppage=30ampid=36 (accessed 25 February 2008)

217


Chandra was still in its orbital ldquocheck-out and calibration phaserdquo when it captured the images confirming that the observatory was performing up to expectations773

27 August Cosmonauts Viktor M Afanasyev and Sergei V Avdeyev departed Mir with their French colleague Jean-Pierre Haignereacute leaving the station empty for the first time in 13frac12 years On 2 August in preparation for the departure the crew had installed a new computer which provided orientation and docking management systems to keep the station in orbit during the absence of a crew The crew had also installed a ground-controlled backup system which would prevent the station from crashing to Earth if a malfunction occurred on board the station774

30 August Lockheed Martin cleared its Atlas II rocket to resume the 1999 launch schedule after having placed its schedule on hold when a Delta III launch failed in early May Deltarsquos RL10B-2 upper-stage engine was similar to the RL10A-4 used on Atlasrsquos Centaur upper stage The Boeing Company and Pratt amp Whitney had led the investigation of the Delta III launch failure with the support of Lockheed Martin Meanwhile Lockheed Martin Astronautics had formed two panels ldquoto ensure that no aspects of commonality between the RL10 engine versions were overlookedrdquo The Senior Engineering Review Panel and the Senior Management Review Team had addressed potential causes of launch failure identified in the Delta III investigation ruling out those factors that did not apply to Atlas flights When the investigators had determined that ldquoan engine-brazing process that left voids in combustion chamber structural jacket splice jointsrdquo was common to all RL10 engines Lockheed Martin had instituted a new set of inspection and analysis measures for accepting or rejecting each engine Lockheed Martin intended to use the inspection techniques on new production chambers Pratt amp Whitney planned to continue using its standard procedure with its Flight Certification Board certifying each set of RL10 engines for all Atlas missions775

GAO published a report ldquoSpace Station Russian Commitment and Cost Control Problemsrdquo reiterating its previous recommendation to NASA to plan for a scenario in which Russia was unable to fulfill its commitments to the ISS Although the report recognized that NASA was in the process of drafting such a plan GAOrsquos sole recommendation to NASA was to ensure the contingency planrsquos completion before the launch of the Russian-built Service Module776

773 NASA ldquoNASA Unveils First Images from Chandra X-ray Observatoryrdquo news release 99-98 26 August 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-098txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 774 David Hoffman ldquoCosmonauts Abandon Mir Russian Space Station Faces Demise After 13 Years Aloftrdquo Washington Post 28 August 1999 Andrei Shukshin for Reuters ldquoRussiarsquos Mir Has New Computer in Controlrdquo 2 August 1999 Reuters ldquoRussiarsquos Mir Crew Fit Equipment To Leave Stationrdquo 6 August 1999 775 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martinrsquos Centaur RL10 Engines Cleared for Flightrdquo news release 30 August 1999 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases1999LOCKHEEDMARTINSCENTAURRL10ENGINESCL html (25 February 2008) 776 Jonathan Lipman ldquoGAO Warns NASA About the Russiansrdquo Spacecom 30 August 1999 httpwwwspace comnewsspacestationgao_30html (accessed 9 April 2008) U S General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Station Russian Commitment and Cost Control Problemsrdquo (report no GAONSIAD-99-175 Washington DC August 1999) httpwwwgaogovarchive1999ns99175pdf (accessed 25 February 2008)

218


The Independent Assessment Team on Mission Success which Lockheed Martin had commissioned in May 1999 after a series of Titan IV launch failures met its 1 September deadline reporting its findings and recommendations to Lockheedrsquos senior management Lockheed Martin had tasked the investigating team with assessing program management engineering and manufacturing processes and quality-control procedures within the companyrsquos Space and Strategic Missiles Sector Having discovered problems in accountability quality subcontract and supplier management and cost emphasis the Team recommended that the company develop a ldquofly-out planrdquo for Titan IVrsquos remaining missions improve its quality control and improve its management of suppliers and subcontractors Chairperson of the review panel A Thomas Young remarked that regardless of the problems the team had uncovered the panel had also found ldquoenormous fundamental technical strengthsrdquo throughout the sector as well as ldquohighly capable and dedicatedrdquo staff Young also commented that the new leadership team was ldquooff to a positive startrdquo Vance D Coffman Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer for Lockheed Martin ldquoendorsed the panelrsquos findings and pledged Lockheed Martin to implementing its recommendationsrdquo777

31 August Kazakhstan lifted its ban on launches of Russian Proton rockets after Moscow paid US$270000 in compensation for the 5 July crash of one of the booster rockets and completed an agreed-upon joint investigation The lifting of the ban cleared the way for two Russian Yamal-100 communications satellites to launch aboard a Proton rocket on 6 September Although initially the country had banned all launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome which Russia had rented since the collapse of the Soviet Union Kazakhstan had modified the ban to bar only Proton rocket launches pending a joint investigation of the accident778

SEPTEMBER 1999

3 September NASA announced its decision to ground the entire Space Shuttle fleet while technicians continued detailed inspections of the fleetrsquos wiring During the first month of inspections following the discovery that faulty wiring had caused a short circuit during Columbiarsquos 23 July launch technicians had located dozens of nicked or exposed wires Shuttle managers had decided to extend the inspections to allow technicians to examine additional parts of each Shuttle Technicians had replaced damaged wiring encased some wires in plastic tubing added Teflon wrapping to others and replaced some connectors to protect the wiring systems against future damage Manager of the Space Shuttle Program Ronald D Dittemore explained that the wiring problems ldquoappeared to have been caused by work-related mechanical damagerdquo⎯from being rubbed or stepped on or from having ldquoheavy objects set down on themrdquo The age of the wiring normal wear or vibrations from Shuttle operations did not appear to have caused the damage779

777 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Implements Space Panel Recommendationsrdquo news release 8 September 1999 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases1999LOCKHEEDMARTINIMPLEMENTSSPACE PANELRhtml (accessed 27 February 2008) 778 Russia Today ldquoKazakhstan Ends Russia Proton Rocket Banrdquo 1 September 1999 779 Warren E Leary ldquoShuttle Fleet Is Grounded by Damage to Wiringrdquo New York Times 4 September 1999

219


NASA announced that its new orbiting SeaWinds radar instrument flying aboard the QuikSCAT satellite was successfully tracking Iceberg B10A which had broken off the Thwaites glacier of Antarctica in 1992 drifting into a shipping lane Earlier in 1999 Iceberg B10A had disappeared when conventional methods of tracking sea-surface ice⎯shipsrsquo radar shipping reports optical images from satellites and microwave sensor data⎯were unable to track it David G Long of the SeaWinds science team at Utahrsquos Brigham Young University remarked that although ldquoa ship was dispatched to the icebergrsquos last known position we were unable to find it until we started receiving data from the SeaWinds instrument in Julyrdquo During its first pass over Antarctica SeaWinds had spotted the iceberg and the National Ice Center in Suitland Maryland had confirmed that the iceberg was B10A Scientists had continued to track it as it moved through the Drake Passage and headed northeast between Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula At that time the National Ice Center had issued an iceberg navigation warning to Argentina780

8 September NASA announced that scientists at Ames Research Center (ARC) who were developing an autonomous robot called the Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA) had completed a key test of the robotrsquos components NASA planned to use the robot to support future space missions equipping it with a variety of sensors to monitor environmental conditions inside a spacecraft such as the amounts of oxygen carbon dioxide and other gases in the air the amount of bacterial growth in the environment the air temperature and the air pressure The development of the PSA was the next phase in developing advanced information technologies following the success of the Wireless Network Experiment which NASArsquos ARC had conducted for the International Space Station (ISS) in 1995 Atlantis astronauts had discovered that wireless computer network systems worked well in a space environment during Mission STS-76 when they tested these networks and found that radio signals from wireless computers did not interfere with the electronic equipment of the Shuttle or of Mir The experimentrsquos success had prompted the astronauts to recommend using handheld wireless portable data assistants to support mission operations on the future ISS ARC scientists had taken the idea a step further designing autonomous intelligent robots that would free the astronautsrsquo hands ARC scientists had also designed the PSA to handle routine ldquohousekeeping choresrdquo such as monitoring inventory and performing environmental sensor-calibration checks so that astronauts would have more time to focus on research tasks781

9 September A Russian Soyuz booster launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome 450 miles (724 kilometers) north of Moscow carrying German French and Swedish research devices In selecting the launch location Russia was attempting to increase its use of the Plesetsk launch facility because of its problems continuing to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome Since the collapse of the Soviet Union Russia had rented the Baikonur launch facility from Kazakhstan782

10 September

780 NASA ldquoNew NASA Ocean Radar Watches for Breakup of Giant Icebergrdquo news release 99-102 3 September 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-102txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 781 NASA Ames Research Center ldquoNASA Developing Autonomous Robot for Future Space Missionsrdquo news release 99-53AR 8 September 1999 782 Reuters ldquoRussian Rocket Blasts Off from Plesetsk Cosmodromerdquo 9 September 1999

220


NASArsquos Inspector General Roberta L Gross published findings and recommendations on behalf of NASArsquos Office of Inspector General regarding Vice President Albert A Gore Jrrsquos proposed Triana satellite project named for Rodrigo de Triana the sailor on Christopher Columbusrsquos 1492 voyage who had first spotted North America The Triana project would call on NASA to provide ldquocontinuous satellite-generated images of the Earth for posting on the Internetrdquo Gross suggested that it was ldquoill-advised for the financially strapped [A]gency to fund a new system to collect pictures of Earth when many imagesrdquo were already widely available Gross said the Triana project would cost four times as much as the Vice Presidentrsquos US$50 million estimate noting that NASA had already spent US$41 million on the project even though Congress had not yet endorsed it She criticized NASA for ldquopressing forward with the project without fully assessing the scientific value of photographing the Earthrdquo NASA had scheduled the satellite for launch aboard a Space Shuttle in December 2000783

20 September AlliedSignal Technical Services based in Columbia Maryland named as its president former astronaut and Space Shuttle Program Office executive James C Adamson who had logged 334 hours in orbit during Missions STS-28 and STS-43 AlliedSignal Technical Services had a staff of 1800 in Maryland and responsibility for oversight of most of the ldquospacecraft ground and flight control at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt [Maryland]rdquo In accepting the appointment Adamson was leaving his position as Chief Operating Officer of United Space Alliance (USA) which operated the Shuttle program for NASA784

Lockheed Martin announced a ldquosweeping reorganizationrdquo of key leadership positions in response to recommendations of the review panel chaired by A Thomas Young The Young Panel had urged the company to make structural changes to correct quality-control problems at Astronautics the unit responsible for Atlas Titan and Athena rocket development In response to the panelrsquos recommendation to divide the two tasks of product assurance and mission success Astronautics President G Thomas Marsh appointed John P Mari as Vice President of Product Assurance and Roman Matherne as Vice President for Mission Success Marsh named John Parker President of the former Mission Success and Product Assurance Section to head the operations post in Lockheed Martinrsquos VentureStar TM Program which the company hoped to develop into a future reusable launch vehicle with the potential to replace the Space Shuttle Marsh appointed Joel S Porter as Vice President for Business Development and Advanced Programs for Astronautics succeeding Matthew B Foster who resigned Other changes at Astronautics included the appointment of Claude McAnally as Vice President of Operations the appointment of Grover W Hall Jr as Vice President of Technical Operations and the separation of Technical Operations from Manufacturing Operations to better delineate responsibility and accountability according to the recommendations of the Young Panel Lockheed tasked Gareth D Flora under Marshrsquos supervision with developing managing and improving subcontract management In addition Flora became responsible for ensuring that the company properly

783 NASA Office of Inspector General ldquoAssessment of the Triana Missionrdquo (final report no G-99-013 Washington DC 10 September 1999) httpoignasagovoldinspections_assessmentsg-99-013pdf (accessed 3 March 2008) Steve Lash ldquoGorersquos Pet Project Not Worth Its Cost NASA Auditor Saysrdquo Houston Chronicle 17 September 1999 784 Greg Schneider ldquoAlliedSignal Technical Gets a New President Adamson Is Former Astronaut Shuttle Executive Engineerrdquo Baltimore Sun (MD) 21 September 1999 NASA Johnson Space Center ldquoBiographical Data James C Adamsonrdquo httpwwwjscnasagovBioshtmlbiosadamson-jchtml (accessed 28 October 2008)

221


implemented the recommendations of the investigating team as well as those of a separate US Air Force review of the aerospace industry785

NASA announced the establishment of a review panel to examine the overall safety of Shuttle maintenance and refurbishment practices following the discovery of maintenance-related damage to the Shuttle fleetrsquos electrical wiring NASA had named Director of ARC Henry McDonald to chair the panel NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight Joseph H Rothenberg indicated that the other team members not yet named would include top maintenance experts from NASA the military the commercial aerospace industry and the commercial aircraft industry NASA required the team to assess NASArsquos standard practices and recommend improvements with preliminary findings due in October786

21 September Spacecom an Internet site devoted to covering the news and science of space appointed Sally K Ride as its President Lou Dobbs had begun Spacecom in July 1999 after resigning as president of CNNrsquos Financial News Ride the first American woman in space had worked closely with Dobbs as he launched the site The position was her ldquofirst foray into the cyberspace after a long career in space research policy and education787

23 September Former astronauts Michael J McCulley Vice President and Deputy Program Manager for USA and William F Readdy NASArsquos Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight testified before the US House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics regarding wiring damage found in Space Shuttles Columbia Discovery Endeavour and Atlantis In its first official report since discovering that frayed wires had caused the short circuit 5 seconds into Columbiarsquos launch on 23 July NASA informed committee members that wiring inspections and maintenance had cost US$350000 NASA had not yet calculated the cost of the ongoing safety ldquostand downrdquo NASA also indicated that it did not intend to pay USA the US$25 million the company would have earned if it had punctually delivered the next Shuttle scheduled for launch McCulley had indicated that his company accepted ldquofull responsibility for wiring damagerdquo found in all four Shuttles despite the fact that the wiring problems might have stemmed from maintenance conducted before USA took over operational responsibility Committee members expressed their concern that NASA planned to request more money for the repairs but Readdy replied that such a scenario was unlikely because USA would be responsible for making the repairs Committee members also were worried about whether Shuttle launches and flights could maintain adequate safety levels when the Shuttle team had only a few opportunities to practice their skills NASA Associate Administrator for Safety and Mission Assurance Frederick D Gregory responded that simulation launches in combination with a flight rate of two launches per year were sufficient to keep a launch teamrsquos skills sharp788

785 Jeffrey Leib ldquoLockheed Replaces Key Staff in Astronautics Unitrdquo Denver Post (CO) 21 September 1999 786 NASA ldquoNASA Forms Independent Industry-Government Team To Review Shuttle Maintenance and Refurbishment Practicesrdquo news release 99-104 20 September 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-104txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 787 Andrea Orr for Reuters ldquoSpacecom Names Space Woman as Company Presidentrdquo 21 September 1999 788 Larry Wheeler ldquoShuttle Wiring Inspections Maintenance Cost $350000rdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 24 September 1999 Tamara Lytle ldquoNASA Officials Bring Wiring Problems to House Panelrsquos Attentionrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 24 September 1999

222


NASA scientists lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft as it entered its Martian orbit and disappeared behind the planet a little less than a year after the launch of its Mars mission in December 1998 Mars Surveyor Project Manager John B McNamee said that the orbit-insertion burn a 16-minute-long burn to slow the spacecraft down as it enters orbit had begun on time The team of NASA scientists observed 5 minutes of the burn before the craft went behind Mars At that point the craft stopped communicating Communication did not resume at the time the team expected the craft to reappear from the far side of the planet McNamee reported that the latest navigation results showed that the craft had entered its orbit lower than his team had planned indicating that NASArsquos navigation predictions at the tracking station may have been incorrect Carl B Pilcher Science Director for Solar System Exploration at NASA Headquarters commented that although losing the spacecraft was very serious the loss was ldquonot devastating to the Mars Surveyor Program as a wholerdquo because the mission of Mars Polar Lander scheduled to arrive at Mars two months after Mars Climate Orbiter was independent of that of Orbiter789

25 September Space Shuttle Columbia the oldest of NASArsquos four orbiters landed at a US Air Force plant in California for a ldquolong-overdue tune-uprdquo The orbiterrsquos overhaul expected to last until July 2000 came months late because of delays related to the launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory Columbia astronauts had deployed Chandra during a mission in July 1999 The inspection and overhaul was Columbiarsquos fourth since entering service in 1981790

28 September NASA announced that after just two months in space the Chandra X-ray Observatory had taken ldquoa stunning image of the Crab Nebulardquo revealing for the first time ldquoa brilliant ring about the nebularsquos heartrdquo The Crab Nebula located 6000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus is the remnant of a star that Chinese astronomers had observed exploding in 1054 AD when it ldquoappeared suddenly and remained visible for weeks even during daytimerdquo Astronomers had used ldquovirtually every astronomical instrumentrdquo to study the Crabrsquos area of the sky discovering that unlocking its mysteries led to ldquoinsight after insightrdquo into how the universe works Astronomers had linked the origin of pulsars to supernovas and confirmed the cosmic origin of chemical elements through the study of the ldquoexpanding cloud of filamentsrdquo in the Crab The new image showed the Crab pulsar ldquoaccelerating particles up to the speed of light and flinging them out into interstellar space at an incredible raterdquo Using Chandrarsquos ldquoexceptional resolutionrdquo scientists had traced the jet all the way to the neutron star where the ring pattern clearly appeared Previously Hubble Space Telescope images had revealed ldquomoving knots and wisps around the neutron starrdquo and other x-ray images had shown the outer portions of the jet only hinting at the ring structure791

789 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoNASArsquos Mars Climate Orbiter Believed To Be Lostrdquo news release 23 September 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99mcolosthtml (accessed 3 March 2008) Reuters ldquoNASA Loses Contact with Mars Orbiterrdquo 23 September 1999 790 Associated Press ldquoShuttle Tuneuprdquo 25 September 1999 791 NASA ldquoChandra Discovers X-ray Ring Around Cosmic Powerhouse in Crab Nebulardquo news release 99-109 28 September 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-109txt (accessed 15 February 2008) Paul Hoversten ldquoPhotos Get to the Source of Pulsarrdquo USA Today 29 September 1999

223


30 September NASA released preliminary findings of an internal peer review conducted at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) after the apparent loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft as it entered its orbit on 23 September The results of the review indicated that ldquoa failure to recognize and correct an error in a transfer of information between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team in Colorado and the mission navigation team in California led to the loss of the spacecraftrdquo The peer review discovered that ldquoone team had used English units while the other used metric units for a key spacecraft operationrdquo NASArsquos systems engineers had failed to detect the error In addition to the JPL committee NASA had formed a separate review committee of experts from within and outside of JPL and planned to establish an independent failure-review board shortly792

NASA announced that new findings from the Galileo spacecraft indicated the presence of sulfuric acid on the frozen surface of Jupiterrsquos moon Europa Sulfuric acid is a corrosive chemical found in car batteries Robert W Carlson of NASArsquos JPL the lead author of a paper published in the journal Science was Principal Investigator for Galileorsquos Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer which located the chemical The new findings corroborated Galileorsquos earlier spectrometer data analyses suggesting the presence of sulfate salts on Europa Despite indications that a liquid ocean may exist under Europarsquos crust Carlson had initially thought the presence of sulfuric acid would end debate over whether it was possible for Europa to contain biological life However his colleague Kenneth H Nealson suggested the opposite remarking that sulfur and sulfuric acid are oxidants⎯energy sources known to us on Earth Therefore Nealson proposed that the findings should encourage scientists to search for ldquoany possible links between the sulfur oxidants on Europarsquos surface and natural fuels produced from Europarsquos hot interiorrdquo793

OCTOBER 1999

1 October V Philip Rasmussen Jr Head of the Department of Plants Soils and Biometeorology at Utah State University began work as NASArsquos first and only agricultural extension agent with the task of disseminating to American farmers satellite data that could increase their productivity In 1917 Congress had established the US Department of Agriculturersquos Cooperative Extension Service operating out of land-grant universities and serving every county in the country Through this program the federal government had made research-based agricultural information available to the public in exchange for federal resource support at the universities Initially Cooperative Extension Service agents had focused on farm and ranch questions but the program had evolved to assist home gardeners greenhouse users and businesses as well After studying the land-grant university system NASA had decided to create a space-grant consortium system to provide the public with access to space science such as the sciences of remote sensing and crop management These scientific fields had developed significantly since the 1970s when

792 NASA ldquoMars Climate Orbiter Team Finds Likely Cause of Lossrdquo news release 99-113 30 September 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-113txt (accessed 15 February 2008) 793 NASA ldquoBattery Acid Chemical Found on Jupiterrsquos Moon Europardquo news release 99-112 30 September 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-112txt (accessed 15 February 2008) R W Carlson et al ldquoSulfuric Acid on Europa and the Radiolytic Sulfur Cyclerdquo Science 286 no 5437 (1 October 1999) 97ndash99

224


Rasmussen had used Landsat data strategically to predict Russian crop yields At that time the US government was not using Landsat data to assist American farmers but under NASArsquos new space-grant program Rasmussenrsquos primary task would be to make such satellite data available through the existing county extension service so that county agents could teach farmers how to use the data to improve crop yield Rasmussen described his extension work⎯using the global positioning satellite (GPS) program in tandem with the geographic information system⎯as ldquoprecision agriculturerdquo because farmers could use the data to make informed adjustments concerning methods of watering and fertilizing fields of various soil types794

The Perseus B research aircraft built by Aurora Flight Sciences Inc sustained moderate damage when it crashed on a California highway during a flight from NASArsquos Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) in Edwards California The craft was a ldquodevelopmental vehicle designed to operate at high altitudes for extended periods on scientific sampling missionsrdquo one of several aircraft that NASA was evaluating as part of its Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology program Controllers could operate the craft remotely from a ground station or the Perseus B could navigate autonomously along a preprogrammed flight path At the time of the accident ground-based Aurora Flight Sciences mission controllers at Edwards Air Force Base were guiding the Perseus B DFRC flight safety officials with assistance from Aurora Flight Sciences operations staff formed an accident investigation team to determine the exact cause of the crash795

NASA announced that scientists studying high-resolution images from Mars Global Surveyor had detected no evidence that ocean shorelines once existed on Mars Previously researchers had interpreted features in images from NASArsquos Viking missions of the 1970s as remnants of ancient coastlines However Surveyor images taken in 1998 with a resolution 5 to 10 times sharper than images that Viking had produced had not provided evidence that water in a coastal environment had formed those features Michael C Malin of Malin Space Science Systems Principal Investigator for the Mars Orbiter Camera aboard Surveyor remarked that although scientists could not rule out the presence of oceans on Mars at one time the evidence in the new images appeared to undermine the ldquofoundation for the lsquoocean hypothesisrsquo developed in the 1980s on the basis of suspected shorelinesrdquo Nevertheless Malin acknowledged ldquosignificant other evidence of water on Mars in the pastrdquo suggesting that as the Mars Orbiter Camera continued to acquire new high-resolution images scientists might have new clues to the role of water in the evolution of Mars796

2 October The US Department of Defense (DOD) successfully conducted the first of a series of tests of a proposed missile defense system An unarmed Minuteman missile carrying a dummy warhead and decoy balloon launched over the Pacific Ocean from Vandenberg Air Force Base 20 minutes later an Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle a 55-inch-long (14-meter-long) 120-pound (544-kilogram) device built by Raytheon Corporation launched aboard a booster rocket from the Marshall Islands The two missiles collided 10 minutes later 3000 miles (4800 kilometers)

794 Joe Bauman ldquoNASA Agent Tackles Down-to-Earth Workrdquo Deseret News (Salt Lake City UT) 23 October 1999 795 NASA ldquoPerseus B Damaged in Crash on California Highwayrdquo news release 99-115 1 October 1999 796 NASA ldquoNew Mars Images No Evidence of Ancient Ocean Shorelinesrdquo news release 99-114 1 October 1999

225


from California and 140 miles (225 kilometers) above the ocean According to the CIA when DOD conducted the test North Korea Iran and Syria were developing long-range missiles that could hit the United States797

4 October NASA announced its selection of three graduate students to receive Michelson fellowships offered by NASArsquos Origins Program and its Space Interferometry Mission NASA awarded a fellowship to Philip M Hinz of the University of Arizona for his work building a new type of nulling interferometer designed to null the glare from nearby stars thereby enabling scientists to observe in infrared wavelengths dust and giant planets orbiting the stars NASA chose Erin M Sabatke also of the University of Arizona to work on creating models of large stretched flat plastic membranes for collecting light from several telescopes placed on separate spacecraft flying in formation Sabatke planned to explore the use of this technique to photograph planets around other stars NASA selected Benjamin F Lane a student at California Institute of Technology for his work advancing the ldquotechnique of using two stars with a narrow angle separating them to measure relative motion of one with respect to the other utilizing a ground-based interferometerrdquo NASA had named the fellowship program for the first American to win a Nobel Prize in physics Albert Michelson known as the father of interferometry Interferometry is a technique of combing and processing light from multiple telescopes to obtain a clear image of distant objects The fellowship covered tuition a student stipend and a small budget for travel and other research expenses for three years of graduate research at the studentrsquos host institution798

Vladimir Petrovsky a member of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences condemned the United Statesrsquo 2 October testing of its proposed missile defense system noting that testing could ldquoaggravate relations not only between the United States and the Asian-Pacific region but also between Japan⎯a US ally in the development of the system⎯and other countriesrdquo Russia had refused to amend the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty which would have permitted the United States to develop a full-fledged missile defense system Preventing either country from developing missile defense systems the Cold Warndashera treaty acted as a deterrent by keeping both the Soviet Union and the United States vulnerable to attack Officials in Washington DC stated that DOD was testing a missile defense system intended to destroy lone missiles launched by rogue states or terrorists not a system meant to protect against a multi-missile attack from a major nuclear power799

5 October Analyzing data from NASArsquos Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft researchers proved for the first time that smoke from forest fires inhibits rainfall TRMM a mission of the United States and Japan and part of NASArsquos Earth Science Enterprise had been producing continuous data since December 1997 Daniel Rosenfeld of the Institute of Earth Sciences at Hebrew University in Jerusalem had studied the data finding that clouds polluted with heavy smoke significantly inhibit warm rain processes When smoke pollutes them cloud

797 Associated Press ldquoMissile Test Sparks Russian Gripesrdquo 4 October 1999 798 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoThree Planet-Hunters Earn NASArsquos Michelson Fellowshipsrdquo news release 99-086 4 October 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99fellowshipshtml (accessed 7 March 2008) 799 Associated Press ldquoMissile Testrdquo

226


tops must ldquogrow considerably above the freezing levelrdquo to produce rain through a different process Rosenfeld remarked that the results of his research had validated earlier studies which showed that urban air pollution inhibits rainfall Christian D Kummerow a TRMM scientist at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) commented that such findings were ldquomaking the first inroads into the difficult problem of understanding humanityrsquos impacts on global precipitationrdquo800

6 October NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin named Arthur G Stephenson Director of NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville Alabama to head the Mars Climate Orbiter Mission Failure Investigation Board Mars Climate Orbiter had disappeared on 23 September as it entered orbit around Mars Goldin tasked the board with independently reviewing all aspects of the missionrsquos failure to verify whether it had been the result of an inadequacy in NASArsquos interplanetary navigation systems Preliminary findings from an internal peer review at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory indicated that ldquoa failure to recognize and correct an error in a transfer of information between the spacecraft team in Colorado and the mission navigation team in Californiardquo had caused the loss of the spacecraft Goldin instructed the board to report its initial findings by 3 November801

NASA researchers at MSFC unveiled an experimental 50-foot (15-meter) track using magnetic levitation (maglev) technology to propel a 30-pound (136-kilogram) model of a spacecraft at a speed of 60 miles (97 kilometers) per hour in 05 seconds MSFC researchers had sought to reduce launch costs as well as to reduce space-vehicle size with the development of a maglev launch-assist system The maglev track was theoretically capable of propelling and releasing a spacecraft at 600 miles (965 kilometers) per hour wing design would then lift the craft and ldquogive it a kick startrdquo before the ignition of the rocketrsquos engines MSFC Manager of Launch Technologies Sherry Buschmann commented that the researchers believed the use of maglev technology could cut launch vehicle size by 20 percent NASArsquos industry partner in the experimental technology was PRT Advanced Maglev Systems Inc of Park Forest Illinois802

NASA released new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of the cores of spiral galaxies like the Milky Way and astronomers studying the images for clues about galactic development discussed their findings at a briefing at NASA Headquarters Two complementary surveys by independent research teams had concluded that the Hubble images confirmed the evolutionary link between a disc-like cloud of dust and gas at the center of a galaxy and a bulge of millions of stars at the center of the disc-like cloud The central bulge stabilizes a galaxyrsquos development controls the birth of stars in the galaxyrsquos core and ldquoholds secrets as to how and when a galaxy formedrdquo Reynier F Peletier of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom confirmed that central bulges of ldquomore tightly wound spiralsrdquo formed at approximately the same time in the early universe C Marcello Carollo of Columbia University who had led a team studying

800 NASA ldquoSpacecraft Provides First Direct Evidence Smoke in the Atmosphere Inhibits Rainfallrdquo news release 99-110 5 October 1999 801 NASA ldquoHead of Mars Climate Orbiter Investigation Board Namedrdquo news release 99-117 6 October 1999 802 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center ldquoNew NASA Track Races Toward Cheaper Trips to Spacerdquo news release 99-260 4 October 1999 Kent Faulk ldquoNASA Spacecraft Float to Future Researchers Test Levitation as Way To Boost Launchesrdquo Birmingham News (AL) 7 October 1999

227


galaxies with small bulges and ldquobar-like structures that bisect the nucleusrdquo had discovered that such galaxies developed more recently Both teams had used HSTrsquos visible-light and infrared cameras to determine the starsrsquo true colors a measure of the age of the stars inside the galaxiesrsquo

803core

7 October A Delta II rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Florida carrying a NAVSTAR Block 2R GPS satellite the third in a new series of GPS spacecraft Lockheed Martin was under contract with the US Air Force to launch 21 GPS craft The NAVSTAR Block 2R military navigational satellite became the 28th operational spacecraft in the GPS constellation to replace an older satellite in the network after completing a one-month test period The US Air Force had originally planned to launch the replacement craft in May 1999 but after a rainstorm had damaged the satellite while it was sitting on the launchpad the Air Force had returned it to Lockheed Martin Missile and Space for repairs Two hurricanes a tropical storm and other rainstorms had caused additional weather delays preventing the launch of an alternate replacement satellite804

10 October NASArsquos Galileo probe survived intense radiation emanating from Jupiter during a ldquodo-or-die effortrdquo when the spacecraft came within 380 miles (611 kilometers) of Jupiterrsquos volcanic moon Io The craft experienced computer problems when passing through the densest part of Jupiterrsquos radiation belt but 1 hour after Galileorsquos closest encounter with Io all of its systems had resumed normal functioning Duane Bindschadler Manager of Science Operations for the Galileo Program explained that close-up study of Io could help scientists learn about the behavior of volcanoes thereby helping them predict the behavior of volcanoes on Earth However because Jupiterrsquos radiation field could damage or destroy the spacecraft NASA had planned the close flyby for the end of the two-year extended mission following Galileorsquos original two-year mission805

12 October Space Imaging Inc a private company owned by Lockheed Martin and based in Thornton Colorado released a photograph taken from space of the intersection of 14th Street NW and Constitution Avenue in Washington DC President William J Clinton had approved the development of private space cameras in 1994 but Space Imaging had been the first company to successfully build and launch a spacecraft with such a camera launching its Eastman Kodakndash built camera on 24 September and testing it on 30 September The commercial image rivaled the products of military spy technology showing objects as small as 3 feet (09 meter) wide Space Imagingrsquos test image showed the Washington Monument part of the Ellipse and the buildings of the US Department of Commerce and the Museum of American History806

803 NASA ldquoStarry Bulges Yield Secrets to Galaxy Growthrdquo news release 99-107 6 October 1999 Deborah Zabarenko for Reuters ldquoHubble Tackles Questions About Cosmic Bulgesrdquo 6 October 1999 804 Irene Brown ldquoDelta Rocket Soars into Spacerdquo Spacecom 7 October 1999 805 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoGalileo Succeeds in Historic Flyby of Jupiterrsquos Volcanic Moonrdquo news release 11 October 1999 Reuters ldquoGalileo Probe Risks Ruin for a Closer Look at Iordquo Washington Post 12 October 1999 806 William J Broad ldquoGiant Leap for Private Industry Spies in Spacerdquo New York Times 13 October 1999

228


13 October At the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Societyrsquos Division for Planetary Sciences research group leaders from the University of Texas at Austin announced that scientists had sifted through the data from Earth-based observatories and from spacecraft such as the HST obtained from the controlled crash of NASArsquos Lunar Prospector into a crater near the south pole of the Moon on 31 July The researchers reported that they had identified ldquono observable signature of waterrdquo in the Moonrsquos crater The announcement confirmed the conclusion reached at the time of the crash The Lunar Prospector spacecraft had launched on 6 January 1998 In March 1998 mission scientists had announced the first tentative findings of the presence of water ice on both of the Moonrsquos poles The controlled crash proposed by engineers and astronomers at the University of Texas was ldquoa low-budget attempt to wring one last bit of productivity from the low-costrdquo mission NASA had accepted the proposal because of the successful peer review of the idea and because the craftrsquos useful life was nearing its end807

14 October NASA announced its selection of the next two missions of its Medium-Class Explorer (MIDEX) Program The first mission headed by Neil Gehrels of NASArsquos GSFC and planned for launch in 2003 was the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer a three-telescope space observatory designed with the ldquounique ability to rotate in orbit and point its gamma-ray telescope x-ray telescope and ultravioletoptical telescope at gamma-ray bursts [GRBs] within minutes of the burstrsquos first appearancerdquo The second mission led by Kenneth J Johnston of the US Naval Observatory was the Full-Sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer (FAME) scheduled to launch in 2004 a space telescope designed to ldquoobtain highly precise position and brightness measurements of 40 million starsrdquo From a group of five missions selected in January 1999 NASA had chosen these two missions for detailed four-month feasibility studies examining cost management and technical plans such as small business involvement and educational outreach NASA had originally received 31 full proposals in August 1998 Associate Administrator for Space Science Edward J Weiler remarked that the selection of the two missions had been the most difficult he had made during his 21 years at NASA because over the years the space science community had been submitting to NASA a steadily increasing number of first-class concepts for smaller missions808

Two satellites the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS-1) sometimes called ZY-1 in Chinese reports and the Brazilian Saci-1 satellite launched atop a Chinese Long March 3B rocket from Taiyuan Launch Center in central China Brazil and China had jointly financed the 1500-kilogram (3307-pound) CBERS-1 which carried three high-resolution cameras for monitoring environmental and vegetation conditions in Brazil and China as well as in other unspecified locations Brazil had designed the 60-kilogram (132-pound) Saci-1 microsatellite to monitor cosmic rays the magnetic field and plasma Shortly after launch communications with the craft failed809

807 NASA ldquoNo Water Ice Detected from Lunar Prospector Impactrdquo news release 99-119 13 October 1999 Associated Press ldquoCraftrsquos Crash into Moon Finds No Waterrdquo Los Angeles Times 13 October 1999 808 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Missions To Search for Planetary Systems and Observe Cosmic Explosionsrdquo news release 99-120 14 October 1999 809 Spacewarn Bulletin no 552 1 November 1999 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx552html (accessed 6 August 2008)

229


18 October NASA released its newest and most accurate map of the continent of Antarctica created from data that the Canadian Space Agencyrsquos (CSArsquos) RADARSAT-1 satellite had collected over an 18-day period during the spring of 1997 Vexel Corporation of Boulder Colorado had developed software to generate a mosaic of the continent from ldquomany small images made from different angles and orientations of the satelliterdquo Project officials and scientists remarked that the most important discoveries resulting from the radar images concerned the network of ice streams the new satellite data revealed that the streams traveled ldquoenormous distances at speeds up to 3000 feet (914 meters) per year⎯100 times faster than the flow of surrounding icerdquo The CSA had begun planning RADARSAT in 1980 because of Canadarsquos interest in using a high-resolution radar satellite to monitor shipping channels in the Arctic NASArsquos negotiations with the CSA had resulted in an agreement NASA would launch the satellite and provide software and data analysis in exchange for access to some of the data the satellite produced Additionally the CSA would make at least two imaging scans of Antarctica RADARSAT had launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 4 November 1995 but until 1997 Canadian controllers had not completed a difficult rotation of the satellite necessary to place Antarctica in full view Once correctly oriented RADARSAT had been able to complete the imaging in 18 days because it could collect data anytime of the day or night and in any weather The last satellite map of Antarctica had used images from five different satellites spanning the years 1980 to 1994810

20 October President William J Clinton signed into law the FY 2000 appropriations bill for the Department of Veterans Administration Housing and Urban Development and Other Agencies which included the US$1365 billion NASA budget Congress had approved NASArsquos budget on 7 October In keeping with the Presidentrsquos original request the final appropriation included full funding for the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle program US$80 million for Spaceliner 100 an MSFC program to find new propulsion technology US$25 million for Shuttle upgrades US$5 million for the National Center for Space Research and Technology a joint venture including MSFC the University of Alabama in Huntsville and private industry and US$3 million to continue research into tether-guided satellites The US House of Representativesrsquo version of the bill had cut US$900 million from NASArsquos funding but the US Senate had approved a budget equal to NASArsquos FY 1999 budget US$136 billion House Republicans had voted to eliminate funding for Triana a controversial Earth-observing satellite first envisioned by Vice President Albert A Gore Jr but the House and Senate conference committee had voted on a compromise providing for the National Academy of Sciences to review the program and forbidding NASA from launching Triana until 1 January 2001811

21 October British astronomers Martin J Ward of the University of Leicester and Keith Mason of Mullard Space Laboratory at University College London announced that NASA had selected them to participate in its Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer mission NASArsquos mission called for the two

810 NASA ldquoNASA Unveils New Most Accurate Map of Antarctic Continentrdquo news release 99-122 18 October 1999 Malcolm W Browne ldquoUnder Antarctica Clues to an Icecaprsquos Fate Radar Uncovers a Network of Ice Streams Larger and Faster than Expected and More Ominousrdquo New York Times 26 October 1999 811 Brett Davis ldquoCongress Approves Full NASA Budgetrdquo Huntsville Times (AL) 8 October 1999 Stephen Koff and Tom Diemer ldquoCleveland NASA Unit CMHA Get Fundingrdquo Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH) 21 October 1999

230


scientists to use a pair of specialized telescopes one measuring ultraviolet and visible light and the other measuring x-ray light to study GRBs the ldquounpredictable powerful explosions in space that sometimes last less than one secondrdquo A collaboration of Italian British and US scientists the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer was one of NASArsquos medium-class explorer missions scheduled for launch in 2003812

Brazilian space officials having lost contact with their countryrsquos Saci-1 satellite days after its launch asked NASA to help them rescue the US$46 million satellite Saci-1 had launched on 14 October from China along with another satellite the CBERS-1 which the two countries had built jointly Brazil asked NASA to photograph the satellite check its condition and devise a plan for its recovery President of the Brazilian Space Agency Luis Meira Filho remarked that Brazil had not given ldquothe satellite up for lostrdquo because space officials knew its location The CBERS-1 satellite was functioning normally and had returned images of Brazil813

22 October NASA released an image of Jupiterrsquos volcanic moon Io captured at the closest range ever accomplished The image which NASArsquos spacecraft Galileo took during a flyby of the moon on 10 October showed a lava field near the center of an erupting volcano named Pillan with visible new lava flows from its volcanic center To capture most of the new images of Io Galileo had used a fast camera mode in which the camera preprocesses the image averaging the brightness in its adjacent parts However Iorsquos radiation had disrupted the process degrading the quality of the images Radiation had not affected images including the newly released image of Pillan taken in other camera modes Galileo Project Manager James K Erickson remarked that Galileo would not use the fast camera mode during the next Io flyby814

27 October New York Governor George E Pataki awarded NASA astronaut Eileen M Collins of Elmira New York the statersquos highest award the Jackie Robinson Empire State Freedom Medal for her achievement as the first female Space Shuttle Commander Collins had been Commander of the historic Mission STS-93 During that mission she and her crew had deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory the heaviest largest and most powerful x-ray telescope ever launched into space Governor Pataki described Collins as ldquoa bold pioneer of the reaches of spacerdquo and remarked that ldquoher talent intelligence and courage set an example that every woman and every man can hope to duplicate in their livesrdquo Every year New York presents the Empire State Freedom Medal established in 1997 to ldquothose who best demonstrate the qualities of determination dignity fairness and honor that were exemplified by Jackie Robinson who broke major league baseballrsquos color barrierrdquo815

A Russian Proton rocket carrying a communications satellite manufactured by Lockheed Martin exploded 6 minutes after launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan the second

812 Reuters ldquoBritish Scientists Selected for New NASA Projectrdquo 21 October 1999 813 Reuters ldquoBrazil Asks NASA Help To Rescue Lost Satelliterdquo 21 October 1999 814 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoClosest-Ever Picture of Volcanic Moon Io Releasedrdquo news release 22 October 1999 815 NASA ldquoFirst Female Shuttle Commander Eileen Collins Receives Jackie Robinson Medalrdquo news release 99shy125 27 October 1999

231


failure of a Proton rocket in three months The Russian Space Agency formed a commission to investigate the crash Kazakhstan had temporarily banned Proton launches from Baikonur following a launch failure on 5 July but Proton rockets had launched from the facility successfully on 6 and 26 September816

28 October Kazakhstan imposed a new ban on Russian launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome following the previous dayrsquos crash of a Proton booster rocket which had malfunctioned shortly after launch Without naming a figure Kazakhstan announced that it would require Russia to pay compensation in an amount significantly higher than the fee that Kazakhstan had charged Russia after the 5 July Proton crash In addition the Kazakhstan government formed a special commission headed by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Pavlov to investigate the accident817

NOVEMBER 1999

2 November NASA announced that Administrator Daniel S Goldin would present Simon Ramo and Bernard A Schriever with NASArsquos Distinguished Public Service Medal on 5 November at the start of a daylong conference NASA the US Air Force Space Command the National Air and Space Museum the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University and the National Space Society were cosponsoring the conference ldquoDeveloping US Launch Capability The Role of Civil-Military Cooperationrdquo The award recognized the leadership of Ramo and Schriever during the early years of the US space program Ramo had been the chief scientist and leading civilian in the Air Force program to build the first US intercontinental ballistic missile system His work had fostered cooperation between the US Air Force and aeronautics industry the necessary foundation of the space program Schriever had pioneered the development of the first ballistic missile for the United States the resulting rocket technology had led to NASArsquos successes in its early human spaceflight programs818

3 November A large section of the outer wall of one of the Lockheed Martin X-33 rocket planersquos two liquid hydrogen fuel tanks separated 2 hours after completing pressure and structural tests at NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center Lockheed intended the X-33 prototype to lead to the development of its VentureStar TM Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) and NASA planned to replace its fleet of Space Shuttles with a fleet of Lockheedrsquos VentureStar TM RLVs after 2012 The latest problem potentially delayed the X-33rsquos first test flight at least an additional six months essentially guaranteeing that Lockheed Martin would be unable to produce an operational VentureStar TM

vehicle by 2004 NASA had ldquoplaced a huge wagerrdquo on the VentureStar TM committing US$941 million to the X-33 program which had been threatened by technical problems and cost overruns for more than a year US General Accounting Office (GAO) examiners had criticized the

816 Miles OrsquoBrien ldquoRussian Rocket Explodes After Liftoff Incident Likely To Delay International Space Stationrdquo CNNcom 27 October 1999 httpwwwcnncomTECHspace991027protonexplodes (accessed 10 April 2008) 817 United Press International ldquoKazakhstan Bans Russian Space Launchesrdquo 28 October 1999 818 NASA ldquoNASA Honors Missile Pioneers at Launch Vehicle Conferencerdquo news release N99-56 2 November 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewsnote2edt1999n99-056txt (accessed 12 March 2008)

232


project for its rising costs warning that ldquodelays in the prototype would harm NASArsquos plans for a full-scale reusable vehiclerdquo819

GAO reported that NASA had ldquoinadvertently exported radiation-hardened microcircuit optical coupler parts to Russiardquo relying on the manufacturerrsquos statement that the so-called rad-hard parts were not on the US Department of Statersquos Munitions List and that therefore NASA was not required to obtain an export license GAO also reported that NASA was ldquopreparing to export sensitive encryption technology to Japan and Europerdquo technology transfers related to building the International Space Station (ISS) Under international agreements related to the space station NASA was obligated to deliver disclose or transfer certain technology data and commodities to other nations involved in building the ISS GAO had investigated NASArsquos export-control procedures after members of Congress expressed concern about safeguards to protect technology and information exported to support the ISS GAO evaluatorsrsquo conclusions were similar to those of NASArsquos Inspector General who had reported earlier that NASArsquos export-control procedures were likely inadequate for the technology exchanges necessary under the ISS program820

5 November NASA announced that its scientists had developed a new Digital Tectonic Activity Map (DTAM) of the Earth pinpointing geologically and volcanically active features of the planet over the last 1 million years Whereas most global geological maps were ldquoplate mapsrdquo emphasizing the definition of plate boundaries of the planetrsquos crust and current seismic or volcanic activity the new tectonic map portrayed the broad architecture of Earthrsquos crust identifying all current and past geological activity NASA had primarily generated the DTAM using publicly available data and commercial software but had also used spacecraft data including Landsat images hand-held astronaut photography and radar altimetry of sea-surface measurements gathered by NASA spacecraft821

8 November Engineers discovered that exposure to 11 months of cold temperatures in outer space could cause the descent engine on Mars Polar Lander to malfunction NASA had scheduled Mars Polar Lander to land on Mars on 3 December Landerrsquos companion craft Mars Climate Orbiter had burned up as it entered its Martian orbit on 23 September The investigative panel studying the cause of Orbiterrsquos loss had uncovered the potential problem with Landerrsquos engines Because of the discovery scientists at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) altered their plans deciding

819 Jeff Leeds ldquoTest Mishap Delays Development of Lockheedrsquos X-33 Rocket Planerdquo Los Angeles Times 6 November 1999 820 U S General Accounting Office ldquoExport Controls International Space Station Technology Transfersrdquo (report no NSIAD-00-14 Washington DC 3 November 1999) httpwwwgaogovarchive2000ns00014pdf (accessed 21 March 2008) Aerospace Daily ldquoNASA Illegally Exported Technology for Space Station GAO reportsrdquo 22 November 1999 821 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ldquoNew Global Digital Tectonic Activity Map of the Earth Producedrdquo news release 99-116 5 November 1999 httpwwwgsfcnasagovnews-releasereleases199999-116htm (accessed 24 March 2008)

233


to turn on the craftrsquos descent engine heaters earlier than originally scheduled to warm the engines to 464degF (8degC) before Landerrsquos descent822

10 November The Mars Climate Orbiter Mission Failure Investigation Board released its first report identifying eight contributing factors that had led to the 23 September loss of Orbiter as it entered its Martian orbit Arthur Stephenson chairperson of the board investigating the failure agreed with NASA on the causes of the missionrsquos failure The board reported that ldquothe failed translation of English units into metric units in a segment of ground-based navigation-related mission softwarerdquo was the primary cause of the loss but that other significant factors had set the stage for the missionrsquos failure Moreover the team had failed to identify and correct multiple mistakes leading to ldquoa major error in our understanding of the spacecraftrsquos path as it approached Marsrdquo The failure board faulted the Mars Climate Orbiter team with ldquoinadequate consideration of the entire mission and its postlaunch operation as a total system inconsistent communications and training within the project and lack of complete end-to-end verification of navigation softwarerdquo Although engineers working with Lockheed Martin Astronauticsrsquo mission operations team had failed to convert English units into metric for entering data into ground-based navigation software the investigating board focused most of its attention on the navigation team at NASArsquos JPL which had overall management authority for the mission The board remarked that because it had navigated interplanetary spacecraft successfully for 30 years JPL had developed a ldquowidespread perception that lsquoOrbiting Mars is routinersquordquo leading it to pay inadequate attention to the risk of faulty navigation823

12 November NASArsquos Office of Earth Science Enterprise selected Ball Aerospace of Boulder Colorado and Aerojet General Corporation of Azusa California to study the next-generation spaceborne microwave atmospheric instrument for weather-forecasting and climate-change research awarding each company a one-year US$4 million fixed-price contract through Goddard Space Flight Center The new instrument the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) was one-third the size and weight of existing microwave-sounding instruments on board the Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES) and the Earth Observing System-PM spacecraft The application of new technologies particularly in microwave electronics had made the significantly smaller size of the ATMS possible NASA intended to fly the first ATMS unit on the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environment Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) mission a joint effort between NASA and the NPOESS Program Office NPOESS a tri-agency program consisting of parts of NASA the National Oceanic and

822 Larry Wheeler ldquoNASA Finds Flaw in Mars Lander Engine Turning On Descent Heaters Earlier Should Prevent Failure of Missionrdquo Florida Today 9 November 1999 Mark Carreau ldquoMars Probe To Get Brake Check NASA Engineers To Warm Descent Rockets of Polar Landerrdquo Houston Chronicle 9 November 1999 823 NASA ldquoMars Climate Orbiter Failure Board Releases Report Numerous NASA Actions Underway in Responserdquo news release 99-134 10 November 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-134txt (accessed 12 March 2008) Earl Lane ldquoReport Details NASA Failings Assigns Blame for Orbiterrsquos Lossrdquo Newsday (Long Island NY) 11 November 1999

234


Atmospheric Administration and the US Air Force merged civilian and military polar-orbiting weather satellite systems into a single system824

13 November The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) entered safe mode when the fourth of six gyroscopes failed halting its astronomical observations Requiring a minimum of three operating gyroscopes to conduct observations HST would remain in safe mode with a reduced power load until Space Shuttle astronauts arrived with six new gyroscopes another data recorder a radio transmitter and an improved computer The telescope was not at risk NASA had divided the servicing mission originally scheduled for June 2000 into two missions when the third gyroscope failed in February NASA had scheduled the first part of the mission Servicing Mission-3A for the fall but rescheduled it for 6 December because the Shuttle had wiring problems and needed its engine replaced NASA had scheduled Servicing Mission-3B for mid-2001825

15 November NASA announced the winner of an essay contest to name the Deep Space 2 microprobes which the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft was carrying to Mars NASA had scheduled the two probes to crash into Marsrsquos south pole on 3 December Paul Withers a graduate student at the University of Arizona in Tucson studying the thin upper atmosphere of Mars had suggested naming the pair Amundsen and Scott in honor of Roald Amundsen and Robert F Scott the first explorers to reach Earthrsquos South Pole In his winning essay Withers recalled that one century ago Antarctica was Earthrsquos only unexplored continent Withers wrote ldquoScott perished in Antarctica His memorialrsquos inscription reads lsquoTo strive to seek to find not to yieldrsquo These are the aims of the Deep Space 2rdquo NASA had designed the two probes with a dual purpose to test advanced technology for future planetary-surface microlanders and to search for water ice 3 feet (09 meters) below the Martian surface Deep Space 2 Project Manager Sarah A Gavit remarked that the names of the Antarctic explorers were appropriate for the probes because ldquolike Amundsen and Scott Deep Space 2 will have to survive great odds including not only braving the elements but also crashing into the terrain with unbelievable forcerdquo826

The main engine of Japanrsquos H-2 rocket malfunctioned 4 minutes after launching from Tanegashima Space Center failing to put the Mtsat satellite into orbit Fearing they could lose control of its trajectory officials ordered the rocketrsquos destruction 8 minutes into its flight marking the first time the National Space Development Agency of Japan had destroyed a rocket in flight It was the second launch failure for the H-2 rocket during 1999 another H-2 had failed to place its payload in orbit in February However before the February malfunction Japan had

824 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ldquoBall and AerojetmdashGeneral Picked To Study New Weather Sensorrdquo news release 99-117 12 November 1999 httpwwwgsfcnasagovnews-releasereleases199999-117htm (accessed 24 March 2008) 825 NASA ldquoHubble Telescope Placed into Safe Hold as Gyroscope Failsrdquo news release 99-136 15 November 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-136txt (accessed 12 March 2008) Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoHubble Troublerdquo 15 November 1999 826 NASA ldquoMars Penetrator Probes Named for Pioneering Polar Explorersrdquo news release 99-135 15 November 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-135txt (accessed 12 March 2008)

235


launched five H-2 rockets successfully The Mtsat satellite intended to replace the Himawari 5 satellite would have observed weather patterns and monitored aircraft827

16 November Officials at NASArsquos Langley Research Center (LARC) officially opened the Centerrsquos new Experimental Test Range (ETR) described as an ldquoelectromagnetic wind tunnelrdquo LARC engineers had designed the ETR to determine how low-frequency electromagnetic radiation affects aircraft to help the military improve stealth technology The ETR also would assist in testing technologies to enable airline passengers to watch television signals from satellites or to help Internet users make wireless connections The first military customer that had signed up to use the ETR the US Armyrsquos National Ground Intelligence Center planned to use models of enemy targets in the test chamber to see how they appeared on radar screens828

17 November NASA announced that new analysis of data from the Galileo spacecraft suggested that Jupiter is possibly much older and colder than previously thought Upon reaching the planet on 7 December 1995 Galileo had dropped a probe carrying a mass spectrometer into Jupiterrsquos atmosphere to measure its chemical composition The spectrometer had ldquodetected surprisingly high concentrations of argon krypton and xenonrdquo raising questions about the noble gasesrsquo provenance Because Jupiter would have trapped the gases through condensation or freezing scientists did not believe Jupiterrsquos atmosphere had trapped the gases at its present site As positioned at present Jupiter is too close to the Sun and too warm to have trapped the gases Tobias Owen an astronomy professor at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii and a member of the Galileo probe Neutral Mass Spectrometer team suggested three hypotheses to explain how the gases had been trapped within the Jovian atmosphere 1) Jupiter had formed in the area around the Kuiper Belt829 and was dragged inward to its present location 2) the solar nebula the cloud of gas and dust that formed the solar system had been much colder than scientists had previously believed and 3) the solid materials that had brought the gases to Jupiter had begun to form in the original interstellar cloud of gas and dust before the cloud had collapsed to form the solar nebula Owen remarked further that if either of the last two hypotheses were correct then giant planets might be able to form closer to their stars than current theories had predicted Such a finding could help explain ldquothe new observations of planetary systems around other stars in which such close-in giant planets are relatively commonrdquo830

18 November

827 Associated Press ldquoJapan Destroys Rocket in Midair as It Lifted $95 Million Satelliterdquo New York Times 16 November 1999 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoJapan Satellite Fails To Reach Orbit Rocket Destroyedrdquo 15 November 1999 828 Jeff Long for Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News ldquoHampton Va NASA Research Center Tests Plane Design with Wind Tunnelrdquo 17 November 1999 829 The Kuiper Belt a region of the solar system beyond the planets is composed of the remnants of the solar systemrsquos formation 830 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoGalileo Probe Results Suggest Jupiter Had an Ancient Chilly Pastrdquo news release 99-096 17 November 1999 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99glprobeargonhtml (accessed 12 March 2008) Tobias Owen et al ldquoA Low-Temperature Origin for the Planetesimals that Formed Jupiterrdquo Nature 402 no 6759 (18 November 1999) 269ndash270

236


Interfax news agency reported that Russia had agreed to pay Kazakhstan US$400000 in damages following the 27 October crash of a Proton rocket during its launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome After reaching an agreement on compensation Kazakhstan had lifted its launch ban for all Russian launches except the Proton rocket831

19 November NASA announced that new data and images which the Galileo spacecraft had collected on its closest-ever flyby of Jupiterrsquos moon Io on 11 October 1999 revealed that Io the most volcanic body in the solar system was ldquoeven more active than previously suspected with more than 100 erupting volcanoesrdquo Data results from the flyby which brought the spacecraft within 380 miles (611 kilometers) of the moonrsquos surface had focused on Pele Loki and Prometheus three of Iorsquos most active volcanoes A close-up image of Pele showed part of the volcano glowing in the dark with Pelersquos hot lava behaving similarly to active lava lakes in Hawaii Galileorsquos Photopolarimeter Radiometer and Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer had provided detailed temperature maps of Loki indicating the presence of an enormous caldera repeatedly flooded by lava New data had clarified the location of lava from Prometheus erupting advancing and producing plumes NASArsquos 1979 Voyager mission had observed a plume and early Galileo images had shown a new lava flow and plume erupting from a location 60 miles (97 kilometers) west of the area observed during Voyagerrsquos mission832

21 November The Peoplersquos Republic of China announced it had launched into orbit its first piloted spacecraft a non-reusable capsule named Shenzhou which carried a mannequin for test purposes but was capable of carrying a crew of four Xinhua news agency reported that the capsule launched from Jiuquan satellite launch center aboard the new model Long March 2F had spent 21 hours in space orbiting Earth 14 times China had built a new land- and sea-based space-monitoring-andshycontrol network for the launch China heralded the launch as a breakthrough in the Chinese governmentrsquos effort to ldquojoin the United States and Russia in the elite club of manned space flightrdquo The Chinese had abandoned the pursuit of human spaceflight in the late 1960s because Premier Zhou Enlai thought it was too costly but in 1992 President Jiang Zemin had decided to renew Chinese efforts with the goal of putting a human in space by the end of the century The head of Chinarsquos Manned Spaceflight Program told Xinhua news agency that the successful test flight of the Shenzhou capsule demonstrated that the Chinese spacecraft and the new Long March rocket performed superbly During the mission the Chinese had conducted experiments in remote sensing environmental monitoring space materials astronomy and physics Shenzhou had landed in Inner Mongolia using a parachute833

22 November Lockheed Martin launched a Navy communications satellite aboard an Atlas 2A rocket a badly needed success in a year of launch failures delays investigations and diminishing business The

831 Associated Press ldquoRussia-Kazakstan-Rocketsrdquo 19 November 1999 832 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoJupiterrsquos Moon Io A Flashback to Earthrsquos Volcanic Pastrdquo news release 99shy138 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases99ioishothtml (accessed 12 March 2008) 833 Michael Laris ldquoChinese Test Craft for Manned Orbits Space Launch Boosts National Priderdquo Washington Post 22 November 1999 Washington Times ldquoChinese Successfully Launch First Spacecraftrdquo 22 November 1999 Spacewarn Bulletin no 553 1 December 1999 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx553html (accessed 6 August 2008)

237


company had failed to put three satellites in orbit in April sustaining a total loss of US$15 billion Investigations into the launch failure of a rocket using similar parts had delayed Lockheed International Launch Servicesrsquo maiden flight of the Atlas IIIA causing its first customer Space SystemsLoral to launch its Telstar 7 satellite on a European Ariane booster instead NASA had lost contact with its US$125 million Lockheed Martinndashbuilt Mars Climate Orbiter in September and in the subsequent investigation had discovered that Lockheed had used English units of measurement instead of metric resulting in miscalculations in navigational data Although for many years Lockheed Martin had supplied satellites to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) the US government agency responsible for spy satellites in September the NRO had awarded a major contract to the Boeing Company to develop the next generation of imaging-reconnaissance satellites Lockheed Martin also faced increased competition from Russiarsquos new Dnepr rocket Europersquos Eurockot and the US-based Orbital Sciences Corporationrsquos Pegasus834

A Russian Soyuz rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying four Globalstar satellites into orbit The launch was Russiarsquos first from the space center in Kazakhstan since a Proton rocket exploded after launch on 27 October prompting the Kazakhstan government to reimpose its launch ban Kazakhstan had lifted the ban partially after Russia agreed to pay US$400000 in compensation Media reports indicated that Russia had earned US$70 million from commercial launches such as that conducted for Globalstar Inc an important income source for the Russian

835space program

23 November Oleksandr Serdiuk head of the International Relations Department of Ukrainersquos Space Agency announced that Ukraine and Brazil had signed an agreement the previous week allowing Ukraine to use Brazilrsquos Alcacircntara space complex to launch a new generation of Cyclone-4 booster rockets medium-weight rockets capable of putting 4 tons (3600 kilograms or 36 tonnes) of payload into a geostationary orbit In 1992 when the USSR dissolved Ukraine had retained part of the former Soviet Unionrsquos space program using several former Soviet factories to build rockets and selling rocket space to commercial satellite companies Before the agreement with Brazil Ukraine had only used launchpads in other former Soviet countries However Ukraine wanted to take advantage of the location of the Alcacircntara space complex near the equator where spacecraft reach orbit more easily and commercial launches a

24 November Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution I Michael Heyman announced the appointment of General John R Dailey US Marine Corps (Retired) Associate Deputy Administrator of NASA as Director of the Smithsonianrsquos National Air and Space Museum effective January 2000 Dailey succeeded Vice Admiral Donald D Engen US Navy (Retired) who had died suddenly in a glider accident in July after serving as the museumrsquos director for three years Dailey had begun work at NASA in 1992 after retiring from 36 years of highly decorated service in the US Marine Corps NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin remarked that Daileyrsquos leadership at NASA had been unparalleled and that he had ldquoshaped and strengthened the [A]gency and was responsible for developing an infrastructure that [would] carry NASA into the

834 United Press International ldquoLockheed Martin Struggles Through Yearrdquo 23 November 1999 835 Associated Press ldquoRussia Launches First Rocket Since October Explosionrdquo 22 November 1999

238


new millenniumrdquo Secretary Heyman commented on Daileyrsquos selection from a strong field of candidates describing him as ldquoa most impressive individualrdquo who had earned confidence and admiration throughout the air and space community and would continue the strong dedicated leadership expected at the museum In addition to managing 260 employees and a US$25 million budget Daileyrsquos appointment placed him in charge of construction of the museumrsquos new 710000-square-foot (66000-square-meter) hangar-style facility expected to open at Dulles International Airport in December 2003 The Smithsonian had conceived the idea of the new facility to display its vast aeronautics and space holdings the original National Air and Space Museum building was too small to house the additional collection of more than 180 aircraft and 100 spacecraft836

27 November NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft was unable to record its closest encounter with Jupiterrsquos moon Io as it passed within 186 miles (299 kilometers) of the volcanic moonrsquos surface Although radiation shut down the craftrsquos instruments NASA was able to restart the instruments 4 minutes later permitting Galileo to complete more than half of its planned observations The craft had encountered a similar problem when it had flown within 380 miles (611 kilometers) of Io in October NASA had added the close flybys of Io located deep within the Jovian systemrsquos radiation belts to the end of Galileorsquos two-year extended mission The spacecraft had launched from Space Shuttle Atlantis on 18 October 1989 had begun orbiting Jupiter in December 1995 and had completed its primary mission in December 1997 thereafter continuing an extended mission focused on Jupiterrsquos moon Europa with flybys of the planetrsquos moons Callisto and Io as well837

DECEMBER 1999

3 December NASA officials and Mars Polar Lander Mission scientists were unable to communicate with Lander following its scheduled landing The team had expected the first signal to arrive from the spacecraft at a tracking station in the Mojave Desert in California approximately 30 minutes after the scheduled touchdown at 301 pm (EST) A second attempt to communicate with the craft had produced nothing Before the craftrsquos landing tracking data indicated that Lander had veered slightly off course Flight controllers had fired its thrusters briefly to alter its approach angle slightly Flight Operations Manager Sam Thurman had expressed his satisfaction with the new tracking data which showed the craft heading for a point within a mile of its target838

7 December Mission controllers indicated that chances of ever contacting the US$165 million Mars Polar Lander were ldquoremote at bestrdquo after they failed to detect a signal during their ldquolast best chancerdquo

836 Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum ldquoNew Director of the National Air and Space Museum To Take Office in Januaryrdquo news release 24 November 1999 httpwwwnasmsiedueventspressroomreleaseDetailcfm releaseID=97 (accessed 19 March 2008) Peter Carlson ldquoNew Air amp Space Chief General Succeeds Director Killed in Crashrdquo Washington Post 24 November 1999 837 John Antozak for the Associated Press ldquoGalileorsquos Moon Shots Impeded by Radiationrdquo Washington Times 27 November 1999 John Antozak for the Associated Press ldquoGalileo Spacecraft Faces Huge Doses of Radiationrdquo USA Today 26 November 1999 838 John Noble Wilford ldquoProbe to Mars Becomes Silent Its Fate Unclearrdquo New York Times 4 December 1999

239


of communicating with the probe NASA officials announced that the loss of Lander meant that NASA would need to drop the timetable for future Mars missions and rethink the entire Mars exploration program including the scheduled launch of the next lander in 2001 NASA had already spent US$193 million on the planned 2001 launch Edward J Weiler head of NASArsquos Office of Space Science indicated that NASA would convene a panel of experts to diagnose the Mars Polar Lander failure and to suggest a ldquonew architecturerdquo for its Mars program Although they had set no dates members of Congress said that they planned to hold hearings about NASArsquos procedures and budget839

9 December The National Research Council (NRC) published a NASA-funded study which found that NASA needed more safeguards to protect astronauts from potentially cancer-causing radiation during spacewalks they would make while building the International Space Station (ISS) The study recommended that NASA change flight rules improve space-weather forecasting and install a radiation-monitoring device outside the ISS The NRC recommended the extra precautions because the stationrsquos assembly schedule consisting of more than three dozen flights and 1500 hours of spacewalks over four years would coincide with the most active part of the 11-year solar cycle Moreover the report estimated a nearly 100 percent chance that at least two assembly missions would overlap with a serious solar storm and a 50 percent chance that five flights would overlap with such a storm Additionally the NRC predicted that a change in the stationrsquos planned orbit which the Russian Space Agency had requested to accommodate Russian launches to help build and resupply the station would increase the level of radiation exposure George L Siscoe a Boston University physics professor and chairperson of the study remarked that although the radiation levels were not life threatening they exceeded the 30-day and 60-day limits set to protect the skin and eyes To safeguard crew from exposure to the increased risk of developing cancer later in life countries participating in the ISS program would have to pay careful attention to flight schedules and crew rotation Furthermore the amount of radiation exposure sustained during ISS missions might affect an astronautrsquos chances of assignment to additional spacewalks and their selection for future missions840

10 December Europersquos new 746-ton (677000-kilogram or 677-tonne) Ariane 5 rocket launched smoothly on its first mission carrying the European Space Agencyrsquos 37-ton (3400-kilogram or 34-tonne) X-ray Multi-Mirror (XMM) scientific satellite into orbit In what France called an industry milestone and ldquohailed as proof of Europersquos superiority in the commercial launch marketrdquo the powerful rocket lifted off at the opening of its launch window from Europersquos facility in Kourou French Guiana depositing the satellite in orbit exactly on schedule 29 minutes later Jean-Marie Luton chairperson of Arianespace the France-based commercial space company that dominated the worldrsquos commercial satellite-launching market remarked that although the United States remained its most serious competitor and China was catching up quickly ldquoEuropeans were still

839 Down Jones Newswire ldquoNASA Fails To Detect Signal from Mars Polar Landerrdquo 7 December 1999 Peter Kendall and Vincent J Schodolski for the Chicago Tribune News Service ldquoMars Exploration Put on Hold NASA Scraps Its Timetable and the Launch of a $193 Million Lander Set for 2001 Is Uncertainrdquo Oregonian (Portland) 8 December 1999 840 Michael Cabbage for Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News ldquoStudy Urges NASA To Increase Radiation Safeguardsrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 10 December 1999

240


one step aheadrdquo Arianespace intended the Ariane 5 twice as heavy and twice as powerful as the Ariane 4 to carry 10- to 12-ton (9100- to 10900-kilogram or 91- to 109-tonne) payloads by 2005 transporting space-exploration modules and serving the ISS The XMM satellite was the largest scientific satellite ever built in Europe equipped with three powerful telescopes with 58 mirrors each and ldquocapable of observing everything from supernovas to the remains of exploded starsrdquo841

A six-member team of Brown University scientists used data from NASArsquos Mars Global Surveyor to examine six categories of evidence supporting the hypothesis that oceans once existed on Mars The team led by planetary geologist James W Head III published their findings in the journal Science Primarily using altimetry data and images captured by Surveyor the researchers had found that the border between two geologically dissimilar areas was nearly level in elevation suggesting an ancient coastline Furthermore they found that the topography below the possible coastline was consistent with the effects of sedimentation and the volume of the hypothetical sea was within range of previous estimates of Martian water A series of terraces running parallel to the supposed shoreline gave credence to the idea of receding water low areas contained the appearance of possible mud cracks and scars from impact craters suggested groundwater or ice near the surface842

At a scheduled 13 December ribbon-cutting ceremony NASA announced the opening of FutureFlight Central (FFC) at Ames Research Centerrsquos Moffett Field in Mountain View California NASA had designed the two-story facility⎯the worldrsquos first full-scale virtual airport control tower⎯to test methods of solving under realistic conditions and configurations potential air and ground traffic problems at commercial airports NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration had jointly funded the US$10 million project The design of FFC permitted ldquointegration of tomorrowrsquos technologies in a risk-free simulation of any airport airfield and tower-cab environmentrdquo843

12 December The US Air Force successfully launched a Titan II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying the first of a new generation of military weather satellites a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Block 5D-3 spacecraft Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space had built the DMSP Block 5D-3 craft under contract with the US Air Force and Lockheed Martin Astronautics had supplied the launch vehicle US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base managed the DMSP and Titan programs The first launch of a Titan II since 19 June 1999 it was the ninth consecutive successful launch of the space launch vehicle The Titan II a type of booster previously used as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and a fundamental element of the United Statesrsquo strategic deterrent for two decades was one of 14 two-stage liquid-fueled former ICBMs that Lockheed Martin Astronautics had

841 Jean-Marie Godard for Associated Press ldquoMission Accomplished for Powerful New European Launcherrdquo 10 December 1998 842 James W Head III et al ldquoPossible Ancient Oceans on Mars Evidence from Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter Datardquo Science 286 no 5447 (10 December 1999) 2134ndash2137 William J Broad ldquoTantalizing Signs of Ancient Martian Oceanrdquo New York Times 10 December 1999 843 NASA ldquoNASA Opens New Virtual Airport Control Tower at Amesrdquo news release 99-143 10 December 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-143txt (accessed 13 March 2008)

241


refurbished for Air Force space launches NASA had also used Titan II rockets during its Gemini program in the 1960s launching 10 piloted and 2 unpiloted missions The DMSP Block 5D-3 series accommodated larger sensor payloads than previous models featuring a larger power supply a more powerful on-board computer with increased memory giving the craft greater autonomy and increased battery power intended to extend the missionrsquos duration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operated DMSP a program for strategic and tactical weather prediction to aid the US military in planning sea land and air operations844

14 December NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin selected NASA Chief Engineer Daniel R Mulville to replace General John R Dailey as Associate Deputy Administrator effective 1 January 2000 Dailey was leaving to become Director of the National Air and Space Museum NASA had appointed Mulville as Chief Engineer in 1995 responsible for overall review of technical readiness and for execution of all NASA programs From 1990 to 1995 Mulville had been Director of the Engineering and Quality Management Division in NASArsquos Office of Safety and Mission Assurance and from 1986 to 1990 he was Deputy Director of the Materials and Structures Division in NASArsquos Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology Before that appointment Mulville had served as the Structures Technology Manager at the Naval Air Systems Command since 1979 where he led the development of structural design testing and certification methods as Program Manager for the Development of Composites for the AV-8B and FA-18 aircraft and advanced aircraft and missile programs Mulville had received NASArsquos Distinguished Service Medal NASArsquos Outstanding Leadership Medal and NASArsquos Exceptional Service Medal among other awards Goldin expressed his pleasure at Mulvillersquos acceptance of the position remarking that as Associate Deputy Administrator Mulville would be his most senior advisor on NASA operations and commenting on Mulvillersquos outstanding work as NASArsquos Chief Engineer845

17 December NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin named A Thomas Young to chair the Mars Program Independent Assessment Team charged with reviewing NASArsquos approach to robotic exploration of Mars following the recent loss of the Mars Polar Lander Mission Among the review teamrsquos tasks were the evaluation of several recent NASA missions to deep space including Mars Pathfinder Mars Global Surveyor Mars Climate Orbiter Mars Polar Lander Deep Space 1 and Deep Space 2 The team would analyze the projectsrsquo budgets content schedule management structure and scientific organization assessing how roles and responsibilities of those missions related to the missionsrsquo safety reliability and success846

At the American Geophysical Unionrsquos fall meeting in San Francisco NASA presented images from the Galileo spacecraftrsquos close flyby of Jupiterrsquos moon Io on 25 November showing ldquoa curtain of lava erupting within a giant volcanic craterrdquo Because of the intense heat and height of

844 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Companies Launch Military Weather Satelliterdquo news release 12 December 1999 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases1999LOCKHEEDMARTINCOMPANIESLAUNCH MILITAhtml (accessed 13 March 2008) 845 NASA ldquoMulville Named Associate Deputy Administratorrdquo news release 99-146 14 December 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-146txt (accessed 13 March 2008) 846 NASA ldquoYoung To Lead Mars Program Assessment Teamrdquo news release 99-147 17 December 1999 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews199999-147txt (accessed 13 March 2008)

242


the lava fountains NASArsquos Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea Hawaii was also able to observe them NASA scientists hoped to determine the temperature of the extremely hot lava on Io by combining data from the telescope and from Galileo observations Galileo scientist Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona in Tucson remarked that capturing images of the fountains was a 1-in-500-chance observation NASA announced that engineers at Jet Propulsion Laboratoryrsquos (JPLrsquos) Measurement Technology Center had been able to repair images damaged by radiation during Galileorsquos 10 October flyby using LabVIEW software from National Instruments JPLrsquos Torrence V Johnson compared the work to unscrambling a television cable signal ldquoJPL engineers had to break the code that was inadvertently introduced by the radiation near Iordquo847

18 December NASA launched its Terra satellite carrying instruments made in the United States Japan and Canada from Vandenberg Air Force Base atop a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS rocket NASA had originally scheduled the mission to launch on 14 December but a computer had aborted the launch moments before ignition Terra carried five sophisticated instruments for observing the interactions among Earthrsquos landmasses atmosphere ocean and biosphere NASA considered the craft the flagship of its Earth Observing System because of its instrumentsrsquo measurement capabilities and accuracy The five instruments were 1) the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) designed to capture high-resolution images of Earth in visible near-infrared shortwave-infrared and thermal-infrared areas of the spectrum 2) the Clouds and the Earthrsquos Radiant Energy System (CERES) a set of two broadband scanning radiometers for measuring Earthrsquos radiation 3) the Multi-Angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) an instrument using nine cameras to measure the amount of sunlight scattered in different directions 4) the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) designed to view the entire surface of the Earth every one to two days and to make observations in 36 spectral bands and 5) the Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) designed to observe the interaction of the lower atmosphere with the land and oceans848

19 December After an unprecedented nine delays Space Shuttle Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida During Mission STS-103 the crew planned to restore the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to working order and to upgrade its systems Discoveryrsquos crew comprised Commander Curtis L Brown Jr Pilot Scott J Kelly and Mission Specialists Steven L Smith C Michael Foale John M Grunsfield Claude Nicollier and Jean-Franccedilois Clervoy849

20 December A Taurus rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying satellites for NASA and the Korean Aerospace Institute as well as 36 capsules holding 7 ounces of cremated remains for Celestis Inc a Houston-based company that arranged to send human remains to space NASArsquos 253-pound (1148-kilogram) Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (EOS ACRIM III)

847 NASA ldquoGalileo Sees Dazzling Lava Fountain on Iordquo news release 99-148 17 December 1999 httpwww nasagovhomehqnews199999-148txt (accessed 13 March 2008) 848 Associated Press ldquoNASA Launched Earth Observing Satellite on $13 Billion Missionrdquo 20 December 1999 849 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-103 Third Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Missionrdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-103html (accessed 29 October 2008)

243


expected to return data for a minimum of five years was deployed to measure sunlight reaching Earthrsquos atmosphere oceans and land data needed for scientists to study whether slight changes in solar output affected global warming and cooling ACRIM III was the third in a series of long-term solar-monitoring tolls that NASArsquos JPL had built ACRIM IIIrsquos data would expand the database begun with the ACRIM I mission in 1980 aboard the Solar Maximum Mission spacecraft and continued with the ACRIM II mission in 1991 aboard the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite ACRIM I was the first instrument to demonstrate clearly that the total radiant energy from the Sun is not a constant The Korean satellite built by TRW Inc for a three-year mission carried three instruments for creating digital elevation maps of Korea studying the biology of the ocean and performing physics experiments on the effects of radiation on electronics The Celestis mission carried 36 capsules of human remains which would orbit for 45 years before burning up in Earthrsquos atmosphere850

21 December Space Shuttle Discovery astronauts captured the HST using the Shuttlersquos robotic arm Discovery had to alter its approach to the space telescope because the telescopersquos failed gyroscopes had ldquoleft the telescope a little shakyrdquo but Commander Curtis L Brown Jr and his crew had prepared for such a scenario A fully operational HST would have had its aft pointed at the center of Earth Brown would have carried out a straightforward approach rising up from below until the robotic arm simply locked on Without its gyroscopes functioning the HST slowly rotated at one revolution per hour Therefore controllers activated backup gyroscopes to eliminate the rotation as much as possible permitting Brown to fly around the HST and properly position the Shuttlersquos robotic arm As both spacecraft traveled around the Earth at 17500 miles (28000 kilometers) per hour with Brown at the controls Discovery moved closer to the HST until French astronaut Jean-Franccedilois Clervoy had removed the 43-foot (13-meter) 25000-pound (11300-kilogram) telescope from orbit and anchored it in the Shuttle cargo bay851

22 December Robert S Ruggeri a retired NASA engineer and pioneer in de-icing research died at the age of 75 Ruggeri had begun working for NASArsquos predecessor agency in 1944 retiring from NASA in 1980 NASA had applied his findings from studying ice buildup on airplane wings in the 1940s and 1950s to the development of rockets and Space Shuttles When the United States sought to speed up its space program following the Soviet Unionrsquos launch of Sputnik Ruggeri had also researched the effects of cavitation⎯partial vacuums in flowing liquids⎯on cryogenic rocket pumps looking for ways to make the pumps more efficient for rockets Later in his career at NASA Ruggerirsquos work had focused on the design of compressors for advanced aircraft engines as he sought ways to increase fuel efficiency reduce air pollution and minimize the noise of jet engines852

850 NASA ldquoItem 1⎯ACRIMSAT Launch⎯HQrdquo NASA Daily News Summary 21 December 1999 httpwww nasagovhomehqnewsmedia1999m99-262txt (accessed 13 March 2008) Associated Press ldquoNASA Satellite Korea Probe Rocket into Spacerdquo 21 December 1999 851 Associated Press ldquoDiscovery Astronauts Capture Hubble Telescope for Repairsrdquo Washington Times 22 December 1999 William Harwood ldquoDiscovery Catches Up with Hubble for a Service Call in Spacerdquo Washington Post 22 December 1999 852 ldquoRobert Ruggeri NASA Engineer Was a Pioneer in Aircraft De-Icingrdquo Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH) 26 December 1999

244


In the second-longest spacewalk in NASArsquos history lasting 8 hours and 15 minutes Steven L Smith and John M Grunsfeld successfully replaced all six of HSTrsquos gyroscopes and had ldquojust enough time to equip each of the telescopersquos six batteries with a voltage regulator to prevent overheatingrdquo NASA believed corroded wires had caused the gyroscope failures To avoid repeating the failure engineers used pressurized nitrogen rather than air to force fluid into the new gyroscopes Smith and Grunsfeld alternated working inside the tight space housing the gyroscopes Because of his long arms NASA assigned the 6-foot-35-inch-tall (19-meter-tall) Smith who had worked on HST during its last service call in 1997 the task of replacing the two sets of gyroscopes on the sides which were more difficult to reach The spacewalk lasted 2 hours longer than scheduled Although Smith and Grunsfeld went to work an hour early and quickly organizing their tools in the cargo bay the pair needed extra time to open coolant-line valves on a disabled infrared camera and encountered difficulty latching the doors of the cargo bay holding the equipment853

23 December British-born US astronaut C Michael Foale and Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier installed a new central computer on HST 20 times faster than the telescopersquos previous one and a refurbished 550-pound (250-kilogram) fine guidance sensor At 8 hours and 10 minutes the pairrsquos spacewalk was the third longest in NASArsquos history854

24 December Astronauts Steven L Smith and John M Grunsfeld completed the HST servicing mission replacing a nonfunctioning radio transmitter and an outdated tape recorder The spacewalk again exceeded 8 hours and for the third time ran behind schedule As the pair prepared to begin their spacewalk Grunsfeld encountered a mechanical problem with his suit and had to exchange it before exiting Discoveryrsquos airlock Grunsfeld also faced the most difficult task replacing the transmitter which was not easy to service in space The job required him to disconnect and reconnect a series of thin coaxial cables while wearing bulky pressurized gloves NASA had designed a special tool for the job but even so the task required more than an hour and Grunsfeld needed to stop to rest his hands The eight-day repair flight had accomplished all of the missionrsquos major objectives although NASA cancelled a fourth spacewalk preventing the astronauts from installing all six steel sunshades that protect HST from solar damage855

25 December Discovery astronauts placed the HST back in orbit using the Shuttlersquos robotic arm Astronaut Jean-Franccedilois Clervoy operated the arm grabbing a handle on the telescopersquos side After releasing the latches securing the observatory inside the Shuttlersquos bay the robotic arm lifted the telescope above the spacecraft and ground controllers opened the door covering HSTrsquos

853 Marcia Dunn for the Associated Press ldquoHubble Gets a Transplant Initial Check Says New Parts Are Workingrdquo Los Angeles Times 23 December 1999 Associated Press ldquoCrew Replaces All 6 Hubble Gyroscopesrdquo Washington Times 23 December 1999 854 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-103rdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-103html (accessed 25 March 2008) 855 Michael Cabbage ldquoGood Job Hubble Looks Fit as Fiddle at the End of a Happy Day in Space the Astronauts Sent Holiday Greetings to Earthrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 25 December 1999 Reuters ldquoAstronauts Wrap Up Work on Hubble Christmas Eve Mission Replaces Bad Transmitterrdquo Washington Times 25 December 1999 Associated Press ldquoRepairs Done Shuttle Crew Makes Plans for Landingrdquo New York Times 27 December 1999

245


telescopic eye Once ground controllers gave the command Discoveryrsquos robotic arm released the telescope Commander Curtis L Brown Jr and Pilot Scott J Kelly fired the Shuttlersquos thrusters to move away from the telescope slowly856

27 December Although crosswinds caused a late touchdown Space Shuttle Discovery landed safely after its eight-day servicing mission to HST NASA managers had instructed Discovery to fly an extra orbit before landing while Mission Control monitored the weather on the ground NASA had shortened the mission to eight days from the scheduled 10 because of numerous launch delays and because Discovery must return to Earth before New Yearrsquos Eve to avoid potential Y2K computer problems857

JANUARY 2000

4 January After detailing only a few computer glitches which had occurred during the dreaded Y2K transition Federal Computer Week reported that NASA had narrowly avoided a Y2K data flaw that might have redirected the orbit of its Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite According to NASArsquos Chief Information Officer the software that transmitted the commands directing satellite orbits had automatically reverted to 1 January 1999 commands when it should have used 1 January 2000 commands Attentive operators caught the potential problem before the software had sent the faulty data to any satellites Although the episode accentuated the seriousness of the Y2K computer transition it was notable that in spite of the risks very few computer crashes actually occurred during the changeover858

7 January In the wake of the failure of the Mars Polar Lander Mission an independent assessment team appointed by NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin assembled for the first time to begin a review of NASArsquos approach to the exploration of Mars The 16-member team included aeronautics experts from NASA aerospace industries the US Air Force and academia Although NASA officials held out hope that Lander would eventually respond to signals from Earth Goldin tasked the team with evaluating NASArsquos successful and unsuccessful missions to Mars The independent investigation continued NASArsquos pattern of scrutinizing all failures to improve its proficiency in the exploration of space859

10 January NASA released recently obtained images that further supported the possibility that Jupiterrsquos moon Europa might be home to a liquid ocean The Galileo spacecraft had captured the images when passing Europarsquos north pole Using a magnetometer instrument Galileo had recorded

856 Robyn Suriano ldquoHubble Set Free Discoveryrsquos Crew Ready for Monday Landing at KSCrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 26 December 1999 857 Washington Times ldquoShuttle Back on Earth after Hubble Repairsrdquo 28 December 1999 Robyn Suriano ldquolsquoWelcome Back to Earthrsquo Discovery Shuttle Astronauts Come in for Late but Safe Landingrdquo USA Today 28 December 1999 858 Paula Shaki Trimble ldquoNASA Discovered Last-Minute Y2K Glitchrdquo Federal Computer Week 4 January 2000 859 NASA ldquoMars Program Independent Assessment Team Begins Workrdquo news release 00-6 7 January 2000

246


changing currents in the moonrsquos magnetic field⎯a finding consistent with the presence of a conducting material such as a watery liquid860

11 January The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Rockwell International Inc Boeing North American Inc and United Space Alliance for concealing millions of dollars in fraud committed by a subcontractor According to the suit the subcontractor had used funds from the Shuttle program to purchase homes jewelry and vacations The subcontractor accused of the fraud had pled guilty to all charges five years earlier and the culpability of the major aerospace companies in concealing the theft was the last significant legal matter to come to trial The three companies claimed that they had cooperated with government investigations into the 180 felony fraud violations and were not liable for the actions of the rogue subcontractor861

12 January Using NASArsquos Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spacecraft astronomers found significant proof that thousands of exploding stars had generated the halo of gas around Earthrsquos Milky Way possibly originating as the galaxy evolved The findings were among the first generated from the FUSE project and scientists hoped that they represented the first of many significant discoveries The halo surrounding the Milky Way had intrigued scientists for decades but researchers had been unable to shed light on how or why the gas formed as it did A team of astronomers presented the findings at the American Astronomical Society conference proclaiming the FUSE observatory ldquoopen for businessrdquo H Warren Moos of Johns Hopkins University Principal Investigator of the FUSE project stated that the ldquodebugging periodrdquo had concluded and that project managers had moved from fine-tuning the instrument to performing space observations The FUSE spectrograph had more than 100 times the power of previous instruments and many researchers hoped that it would allow more extensive investigation of the formation and collapse of stars⎯a research agenda that might eventually uncover the sequence of events that resulted in the formation of the Earth862

A National Research Council panel made up of climate and environment experts announced that it had found significant evidence to support the theory of global warming The panel found that the Earthrsquos surface had warmed at a rate substantially greater than average for the past millennium Panel Chairperson John M Wallace of the University of Washingtonrsquos Environment Program clarified the grouprsquos findings ldquoThe surface of the temperature is rising and has risen substantially in the past 20 yearsrdquo Wallace also carefully pointed out that the group had not addressed the issue of causation ldquoWe are not saying that the rise is due to greenhouse gases nor are we saying that it is going to continuerdquo The findings added to the ongoing debate over global

860 NASA ldquoGalileo Findings Boost Idea of Other-Worldly Oceanrdquo news release 00-7 10 January 2000 861 Associated Press ldquoGovernment Sues Three Companies Including Boeing North American over Space Shuttle Program Fraudrdquo 12 January 2000 862 NASA ldquoFUSE Spacecraft Observes Interstellar Lifeblood of Galaxiesrdquo news release 00-5 12 January 2000 John Noble Wilford ldquoScientists Are Gaining a New Understanding of the Dynamics of Galaxiesrdquo New York Times 12 January 2000 Reuters ldquoUSA Milky Wayrsquos Halo Caused by Exploding Stars⎯NASArdquo 12 January 2000

247


warming Not surprisingly environmental advocates praised the panelrsquos conclusions and global-warming critics dismissed them863

The Russian Space Agency announced another delay in the launch of the crew compartment for the International Space Station (ISS) after two Proton rockets exploded when metal and mineral particles contaminated their engines The Russian Space Agency had planned to use a Proton rocket to launch the ISS module The S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia which built the boosters promised to replace the Proton rocketrsquos faulty parts Funding problems had previously slowed construction of the crew compartment disrupting the timeline for the international project864

As a part of its ldquoCelebrate the Centuryrdquo program the US Postal Service unveiled a stamp commemorating the Space Shuttle Program The stamp with the Shuttlersquos image joined 12 other stamps with images recalling significant American memories of the past century such as video games the fall of the Berlin Wall personal computers and Cabbage Patch Dolls The Space Shuttle stamp was part of the celebration of the 1980s portion of the millennium Kennedy Space Center Director Roy D Bridges Jr issued a statement thanking the Postal Service for the honor865

13 January Astronomers using images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) discovered what they believed to be the first examples of ldquoisolated stellar-mass black holes adrift among the stars of our galaxyrdquo They announced their discovery at a convention of the American Astronomical Society The findings supported a long-standing theory that black holes could form with the collapse of just one massive star although an opposing theory had concluded that multiple stars must collapse in tandem Moreover the researchersrsquo contribution was the latest in a string of recent findings illuminating the relatively commonplace nature of black holes866

14 January Science and business leaders from the United States and Singapore signed an agreement to collaborate on biotechnology research conducted in space The pact focused on improving drugs and crops outlined experiments planned for a 2001 Shuttle Columbia mission US Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO) called the agreement an ldquoimportant step toward increasing scientific knowledgerdquo867

17 January NASA declared an end to its attempts to contact Mars Polar Lander which had descended to the Red Planetrsquos surface on 3 December 1999 The planned 90-day mission had derailed when

863 Robert Lee Hotz ldquoGlobal Warming Real Says National Panel of Climate Expertsrdquo Los Angeles Times 13 January 2000 Associated Press ldquoScientists Report Warmer Earth Cause Uncertainrdquo 12 January 2000 Arthur B Robinson ldquoGlobal Warming Is 300-Year-Old Newsrdquo Wall Street Journal 18 January 2000 864 Associated Press ldquoRussia Again Delays Launch of Space Station Unitrdquo 12 January 2000 Associated Press ldquoSpace Station Launch Delayedrdquo 12 January 2000 865 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Program Joins American Icons in Commemorative Stamp Collectionrdquo news release 0012 12 January 2000 866 NASA ldquoLone Black Holes Discovered Adrift in the Galaxyrdquo news release 00-4 13 January 2000 867 Associated Press ldquoSingapore US Scientists Sign Accord on Outer Space Researchrdquo 14 January 2000

shy

248


mission controllers at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) were unable to communicate with the probe after it landed Investigators had methodically tried different commands to reach Lander Meanwhile scientists and amateur space enthusiasts alike had offered a wide range of hypotheses concerning the cause of Landerrsquos silence speculating that Lander had exploded before actually reaching Marsrsquos surface or that it had simply sunk in the Martian dust After exhausting all means of contacting the probe NASA had declared the US$165 million mission concluded indicating that future missions would attempt to make up for the loss of Polar Lander Project Manager Richard A Cook expressed his sense of closure about the decision to stop investigating the matter ldquowe feel somewhat complete in the sense that we did go through the things we thought were reasonable we gave it a good shotrdquo868

24 January NASA released the first HST images taken after the Shuttlersquos Mission STS-103 in which the crew of Discovery realigned and refurbished the telescope The stunning clarity of the new images suggested that the mission specialists had succeeded in their sensitive work According to Steven Beckwith Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute the work returned HST to ldquoa condition that was better than it was even before the fourth gyroscope failedrdquo Astronomers had focused on targets more than 5000 light-years away to test the upgraded telescope During the servicing mission astronauts had also installed a Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 and a Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph new instruments that would contribute to the already formidable strength of the HST869

28 January NASA announced that the Food and Drug Administration had cleared for diagnostic use a new technology to fight breast cancer originally developed at JPL OmniCorder Technologies Inc had built the device called the BioScan System using a sensor developed by JPL researcher Sarath D Gunapala Gunapala had originally developed the sensor named the Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector to locate hot spots in fires and volcanoes When researchers had learned that the increased blood flow surrounding cancerous tissues often raises skin temperatures slightly medical scientists realized that doctors could use the technology to conduct noninvasive screenings helping to detect breast cancer The new device had charted temperature changes as slight as 0027degF (-18degC) from one area of the body to another making it a promising tool for doctors and cancer researchers870

NASA released the research results of astronaut John H Glenn Jrrsquos historic 1998 voyage aboard Shuttle Discovery The report detailed the 88 experiments conducted on Mission STS-95 the most of any Shuttle mission NASA responded to some critics who called the mission a publicity-driven flight with little scientific value disclosing that Glenn himself had participated in 10 experiments during the mission After becoming the first American to orbit the Earth in

868 Usha Lee McFarling ldquoNASA Gives Up Hope of Finding Mars Proberdquo Los Angeles Times 18 January 2000 Associated Press ldquoJPL To End Search Today for Mars Polar Landerrdquo 17 January 2000 USA Today ldquoNASA Quits Trying To Contact Missing Mars Polar Landerrdquo USA Today 18 January 2000 Associated Press ldquoReport Mars Lander May Have Touched Down in Steep Canyonrdquo 6 January 2000 869 NASA ldquoHubble Reopens Eye on the Universerdquo news release 00-16 24 January 2000 870 NASA ldquoBreast Cancer Screening Aid Cleared for Diagnostic Userdquo news release 00-17 28 January 2000

249


1962 Glenn had returned to space 36 years later to achieve another record⎯the oldest man to fly in space871

FEBRUARY 2000

2 February The publication Florida Today announced that astronaut Janice E Voss would carry aboard the next scheduled Endeavour flight a commemorative stuffed bear manufactured to raise money for victims of the shooting at the Columbine High School in Colorado Voss had agreed to the plan when students from Columbine visiting Kennedy Space Center as NASArsquos special guests explained their fund-raising goals NASA had invited the Columbine students to Cape Canaveral Florida to watch a Space Shuttle launch NASA also announced that at the conclusion of Vossrsquos mission it would donate to the still-recovering high school an official Endeavour flight kit Of the classrsquos trip to NASA to watch Endeavourrsquos launch a parent of one of the Columbine students said simply that it was ldquoa once-in-a-lifetime opportunityrdquo872

3 February In another escalation of the increasingly tense debate over how to handle Russiarsquos repeated delays in building and launching the service module of the International Space Station (ISS) NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced that if Russia did not meet a July 2000 deadline the United States would provide a substitute module Russia was already more than two years behind schedule affecting the ISSrsquos timeline and hampering the cooperative international effort Goldinrsquos decision followed Russiarsquos announcement of its plan to direct more resources to the failing Mir space station Some space experts perceived Russiarsquos designation of scarce financial funds to Mir rather than to the ISS as a signal of Russiarsquos reluctance to participate fully in the international space consortium In his strongest criticism to date Goldin said of Russiarsquos ISS involvement ldquoTo say we are frustrated and disappointed is an understatement We want the Russians to be there but we felt we had to be responsible custodians to keep the program on trackrdquo873

7 February President William J Clintonrsquos proposed budget for NASA was unveiled at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC The proposal contained none of the cutbacks that had driven the Clinton administrationrsquos previous NASA budgets instead calling for steady increases in funding for space exploration over a period of five years The key caveat however was that most of the increases were scheduled to be implemented after Clinton left office Most noteworthy the proposal set aside US$6 billion to begin research into designing a replacement for the Space Shuttle fleet Officials hoped that NASArsquos plan to build a reusable launch vehicle to replace the aging Shuttles would come to fruition around the year 2005874

871 Associated Press ldquoScientific Results of Glennrsquos Mission Released by NASArdquo 28 January 2000 872 Billy Cox ldquoEndeavour To Launch with Columbine Bearrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 2 February 2000 873 Warren E Leary ldquoNASA Dictates Date for Russia on Station Portrdquo New York Times 4 February 2000 Associated Press ldquoNASA Wersquoll Launch if Russia Failsrdquo 4 February 2000 874 Joseph C Anselmo ldquoNASA Funds Research for Shuttle Successorrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 152 no 7 (14 February 2000) 11minus12

250


NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced that NASA would merge the Office of the Chief Technologist and the Office of Aero-Space Technology to better facilitate NASArsquos technological advancements According to Goldin placing a range of issues from IT operation to technology-based research under the domain of a single leader would promote IT compatibility Goldin appointed Chief Technologist Samuel L Venneri to head the new Office giving Venneri the responsibility of developing a long-term strategy to keep NASA at the forefront of technological development Goldin also tasked Venneri with forging new relationships with companies using technologies similar to the type that NASA developed and used Venneri had been NASArsquos Chief Technologist since 1996875

8 February The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft set an astronomical record by facilitating the discovery of 102 comets The spacecraft featured a Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instrument that allowed astronomers to observe comets that previously would have been invisible Douglas A Biesecker an astronomer at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center was responsible for making 45 discoveries on his own According to the researchers working on the project SOHO had revealed far more suicidal comets (those plunging into the Sunrsquos atmosphere) and sungrazers (those that pass by the Sun) than scientists had previously expected to find The findings had practical implications as well By observing the patterns of comets as they circled collided and split scientists hoped that they might be better prepared to predict the behavior of a comet headed for Earth876

9 February Russia successfully launched a Soyuz test rocket equipped with a Fregat accelerator unit able to carry payloads into high orbit but lost the Fregat unit upon its reentry to Earth The rocket took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying only a dummy payload into space in a test that was part of Russiarsquos ongoing research into developing vehicles and technologies that would eventually serve the orbiting ISS877

More than 10000 white-collar workers walked off the job at the Boeing Company in protest over failed contract negotiations Most of the strikers came from the aerospace giantrsquos work site in Seattle Washington878

10 February In a much-anticipated launch the Astro-E satellite lifted off aboard an M-5 rocket from the Kagoshima Space Center on the Japanese island of Kyushu However soon after launch Astro-E was lost when the rocket suffered a ldquocontrol system breakdownrdquo propelling the satellite into a lower orbit than planned US officials monitoring the launch determined that the satellite had most likely burned up in Earthrsquos atmosphere Astro-E the product of a joint venture between the United States and Japan carried new x-rayndashsensing equipment which scientists had hoped would further illuminate the material surrounding black holes Scientists had designed the new

875 NASA ldquoGoldin Names Venneri To Head Merged Technology Aero-Space Office New Chief Engineer Appointedrdquo news release 00-21 7 February 2000 876 NASA ldquoSOHO Spacecraft Bags 102 Cometsrdquo news release 00-23 8 February 2000 877 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoRussia Tests Then Loses Rocket with Union for Higher Orbitrdquo 9 February 2000 878 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoThousands Walk Out on Boeing in Seattlerdquo 10 February 2000

251


equipment to sense minute changes in the heat of single protons The specialists overseeing the launch and mission had hoped that Astro-E would orbit and gather data for five years The satellite had cost more than US$100 million to develop879

11 February Shuttle Endeavour lifted off in Mission STS-99 planning to use new radar technology to map Earthrsquos terrain Crew included astronauts Kevin R Kregel Dominic L P Gorie Janet L Kavandi Janice E Voss Mamoru Mohri and Gerhard P J Thiele The astronauts planned to extend the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission antenna from Endeavourrsquos cargo bay The 197shyfoot (60-meter) antenna would gather mapping data necessary to create the most comprehensive map of Earth ever drawn NASA collaborated with the National Imagery and Mapping Agency in planning the mission and hoped to cover more than 70 percent of Earthrsquos surface during the 11-day mission880

14 February The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft successfully orbited the asteroid Eros 160 million miles (258 million kilometers) from Earth gathering close-up images of the craggy rock in the first successful orbit of a spacecraft around an asteroid The unique images revealed large boulders and craters on Eros Scientists noted with amusement that on the Valentinersquos Day encounter NEAR obtained images of a heart-shaped chasm on Eros NASA planned for NEAR to orbit Eros for about one year881

18 February NASA announced that a team of astronomers had discovered what they believed to be the earliest known structure ever to form in the universe The researchers had used the Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory in California and the National Science Foundationrsquos Mayall Telescope in Kitt Peake Arizona to find an ancient quasar By measuring the quasarrsquos redshift to determine how fast the quasar was moving away from the galaxy scientists had been able to calculate the cosmic distance separating Earth and the quasar The odds of discovering such a distant and relatively fast-moving quasar were remote especially since scientists could monitor only a fraction of the sky at any one time The discovery had the broader value of providing a reference point by which to assess those bodies between Earth and the quasar Daniel Stern of NASA described the findingrsquos utility ldquoFinding a quasar at this distance is like turning on a flashlight at the edge of the universerdquo882

At a ceremony at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs Colorado US Air Force General Ralph E Eberhart succeeded General Richard B Myers as the nationrsquos top military space official overseeing the US Space Command the US Air Force Space Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command in addition to thousands of troops and more

879 NASA ldquoJapanese-US Satellite Ushers in Golden Era of X-ray Astronomyrdquo news release 00-18 2 February 2000 Associated Press ldquoJapan Suffers Another Setback When Satellite Fails To Reach Orbitrdquo 10 February 2000 Justin Ray ldquoAstro-E Believed Lost Following Botched Launchrdquo Space Flight Now 10 February 2000 880 Associated Press ldquoEndeavour on Mission To Get Best Map of Earthrdquo 12 February 2000 881 NASA ldquoNEAR Begins Looking Closely at Erosrdquo news release 00-28 17 February 2000 Peter Kendall ldquoCameras Get Close-Up View of Asteroidrdquo Chicago Tribune 15 February 2000 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoRobot Spacecraft Successfully Orbits Asteroid Erosrdquo 14 February 2000 882 NASA ldquoNewfound Quasar Wins Title lsquoMost Distant in the Universersquordquo news release 00-30 18 February 2000

252


than 100 satellites Eberhart took over the US space operations post after having led the Air Forcersquos Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia883

19 February The American Museum of Natural Historyrsquos new Hayden Planetarium which had used information gathered from NASA and the European Space Agency to compile a database containing billions of stars opened to the public From 1935 to 1997 the New York City museum had hosted thousands of visitors annually with a less elaborate planetarium The new planetarium was only one part of the sparkling US$210 million Rose Center for Earth and Space which museum curator Michael M Shara hoped would inspire future scientists The facility resembling a spacecraft on the outside featured informative programming hosted by celebrities such as actors Tom Hanks and Jodie Foster As they walked through the new facility visitors could observe displays demonstrating how scientists believed the universe had evolved over a period of 13 billion years884

20 February By conserving fuel throughout their mission the astronauts aboard Shuttle Endeavour were able to prolong their time in space by one extra day allowing the crew to map the Earthrsquos terrain covering several million square miles more than they had originally estimated possible The extra 9 hours and 10 minutes of mapping allowed the radar flown from Endeavour to survey Australia in detail making up for time lost when a Shuttle thruster had failed885

22 February Shuttle Endeavour returned safely to Earth after a successful 11-day voyage The scientific community and the public greeted the Shuttlersquos return with even more fanfare than usual because the crew had obtained stunning images of Earth Endeavourrsquos six-person crew had worked nearly around the clock keeping radar antennas running to compile the data for three-dimensional digital maps of Earthrsquos surface The crew had gathered more than 300 digital tapes of radar data during the mission which NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin called ldquoone of the most challenging difficult missions we ever undertookrdquo The mission had successfully mapped 435 million square miles (113 million square kilometers) of Earthrsquos terrain NASA and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency expected that transferring the data into readable maps would take between one and two years NASA had obtained the images primarily for the US Department of Defense to improve the accuracy of missiles and to assist in navigation for military planes and troops886

23 February NASA Inspector General Roberta L Gross reported that the Boeing Company would have to forfeit most of its profit from the ISS contract because of its nearly US$1 billion in cost overruns NASArsquos incentive-laden contract with Boeing allowed for significant bonuses for meeting

883 Tom Breen ldquoUS Gets New Military Space Chiefrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 19 February 2000 884 Associated Press ldquoMuseum Unveils Planetarium for the 21 Centuryrdquo 2 February 2000 885 Associated Press ldquoEndeavour Squeezes in Extra Mapping Dayrdquo 21 February 2000 886 Associated Press ldquoEndeavour Returns with Dazzling Images of the Home Planetrdquo 22 February 2000 Los Angeles Times ldquoEndeavourrsquos Astronauts End Earth-Mapping Workrdquo 22 February 2000 Chicago Tribune ldquoMission Map the Earthrdquo 22 February 2000

253


timeline and cost limits NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin had ordered an audit of the NASA-Boeing contract in 1999 because projected cost overages had continued to rise Nonetheless as Boeing neared completion of the construction of its portion of the ISS both NASA and the aerospace giant were optimistic that cost overruns had stabilized and that the space station hardware would perform well in space887

MARCH 2000

3 March NASArsquos Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland Ohio opened a new laboratory dedicated to the study of ballistics The laboratory housed in the complexrsquos Building 49 featured a 40-foot (12-meter) gas gun that could shoot projectiles at speeds of up to 1500 feet (4572 meters) per second A camera with the ability to capture 25 million images per second allowed researchers to observe the behavior of the projectiles and chart the results of their impact on aviation equipment ldquoThe whole ideardquo Team Leader Dale A Hopkins explained ldquois to watch the impact and see how materials struck by the projectiles behave not just whether they survive but how they deform and failrdquo GRC had designed the new facility to test materials used for aircraft engine housings and for flywheel containment Researchers hoped that the new tools would help engineer aircraft that could withstand the pressures of high-speed and high-altitude flight better than those already available could GRC had been testing ballistic materials since 1980888

7 March Chester M Lee who had served as Mission Director for six Apollo Missions to the Moon including Apollo 13 died from complications of open-heart surgery Lee had begun his 23-year career with NASA in 1965 after retiring from the US Navy specializing primarily on the Apollo Missions He had also served as Program Director for the 1973ndash1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project the first joint venture between the United States and the former Soviet Union889

8 March A National Academy of Sciences task force issued a report supporting the development and deployment of the Triana research satellite proposed by Vice President Albert A Gore Jr Congress had authorized the task force in 1999 to investigate the feasibility of Gorersquos plan which called for a satellite to orbit Earth continuously capturing live pictures of the planet Gore believed that obtaining the images and making them available on the Internet would increase public awareness of environmental issues The proposal had sparked a political controversy between Gore and the Republican Congress prompting Congress to demand that a task force investigate the value of the project The task force reported that the satellite had scientific merit White House science advisor Neal Lane praised the studyrsquos results urging House members to act with ldquobipartisan Congressional supportrdquo The process of investigation and approval of the project had drawn public attention to the political debate about space exploration890

887 Tony Capaccio ldquoBoeing Overruns on Space Station Near $1Billionrdquo Los Angeles Times 23 February 2000 888 NASA ldquoNew Lab Ready To Test Sudden Impactrdquo news release 00-34 3 March 2000 889 Associated Press ldquoChet Lee Former NASA Worker Dies at 80rdquo 7 March 2000 Los Angeles Times ldquoObituaries Chester Lee Navy Captain Apollo Mission Directorrdquo 9 March 2000 890 Warren E Leary ldquoScience Panel Supports Gore Satellite Planrdquo New York Times 9 March 2000 Associated Press ldquoPanel Finds Merit in Space Mission Proposed by Gorerdquo 8 March 2000

254


9 March An independent study commissioned by NASA in the wake of the highly public failures of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander found that cost-cutting measures had created significant risks for NASArsquos Shuttle program Although the report maintained that the overall safety of NASArsquos operations remained within an acceptable range the investigators warned that the use of contractors and the lack of oversight compromised the quality of NASArsquos missions NASArsquos chief of the Office of Space Flight accepted the reportrsquos recommendations to improve NASArsquos operations also noting however that NASA had already investigated and dealt with many of the weaknesses highlighted in the report With budgetary matters always a pressing concern NASA had made various necessary reductions in personnel relying on companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin more than ever NASA had initiated the investigation to understand more fully the impact of the changes on NASArsquos highest priority⎯the safety of its astronauts891

10 March In an article in the journal Science a team of researchers led by Maria T Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported that they had found compelling evidence that Mars once had a wet climate According to Zuber ldquoEvidence is building of more water on the surface of Mars at one timerdquo The researchers had used the laser measurements taken by Mars Global Surveyor to reach their conclusions Although Zuber indicated that scientists did not yet have enough evidence to determine whether Mars once had a surface ocean the study did find large buried channels beneath the planetrsquos crust suggesting that an enormous flow of water once deluged the landscape The researchers had also found further evidence of two distinct ldquocrustal provincesrdquo on Mars similar to those on Earth The team estimated that Marsrsquos crust was 50 miles (80 kilometers) thick beneath the planetrsquos southern highlands but only 22 miles (35 kilometers) thick beneath the northernmost areas of the planet By using Surveyorrsquos data to analyze thoroughly the topography of the planet the research team had also drawn the conclusion that Mars had once been home to more water than ice The variety of landmasses suggested that for a period the planetrsquos core had released heat turning ice trapped beneath Marsrsquos surface into water As one newspaper described the formative events estimated to have taken place approximately 4 billion years ago ldquoIt steamed and streamedrdquo892

13 March The Sea Launch Company suffered a setback in its bid to become a major participant in the satellite launch industry when one of its Russian-Ukrainian Zenit 3SL rockets carrying a British communications satellite crashed into the Pacific Ocean The launch was only the third undertaken by the international company which had planned to use a converted ocean oil rig known as Odyssey as its permanent launchpad The Sea Launch Company comprised the Boeing Company together with companies from Russia Ukraine and Norway The company had designed its innovative Sea Launch System to use Earthrsquos rotation and the faster movement of

891 Associated Press ldquoNASA Says Shuttle Cuts Have Led to Higher Riskrdquo 10 March 2000 Los Angeles Times ldquoStudy Raises Concerns About Shuttle Safetyrdquo 13 March 2000 892 Marie T Zuber et al ldquoInternal Structure and Early Thermal Evolution of Mars from Mars Global Surveyor Topography and Gravityrdquo Science 287 no 5459 (10 March 2000) 1788minus1893 NASA ldquoView Inside Mars Reveals Rapid Cooling and Buried Channelsrdquo news release 00-36 9 March 2000 Dan Vergano ldquoNorthern Mars Once Was Drenchedrdquo USA Today 13 March 2000

255


Earthrsquos surface at the equator to make it easier to launch rockets with heavy payloads The failed satellite had cost London-based ICO Global Communications more than US$100 million to develop893

14 March NASA announced that it had renamed the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft already orbiting asteroid 433 (Eros) after Eugene M Shoemaker an expert in the study of asteroid craters and their origins who died in 1997 Shoemakerrsquos work on Meteor Crater in Arizona during the 1960s had set the standard for crater investigation Shoemaker had worked for NASA teaching astronauts about meteors and craters He died in the Australian outback while researching asteroid-impact craters894

16 March NASA dedicated a new aerospace laboratory at Anne Beers Elementary School in Washington DC featuring a simulated Shuttle cockpit and Mission Control Center NASA had named the facility designed to encourage student interest in space exploration for US Representative Louis Stokes (D-OH) who had proposed legislation to fund the endeavor in 1998 NASArsquos GRC and Goddard Space Flight Center had worked with the Orchard Glenn School of Cleveland Ohio and the University of the District of Columbia to construct the innovative facility895

17 March The US General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report stating that the Russian components for the International Space Station (ISS) did not meet NASArsquos standard safety requirements GAOrsquos findings were the latest in a long series of controversies particularly between the United States and Russia in the international effort to build the space station Most significant of its safety deficits the Russian crew module did not have adequate shielding to protect the ISS crew from orbiting space debris At the time of the report the Russians were already more than two years behind in delivering the crew module896

21 March During routine testing in preparation for a July 2000 launch excessive vibration damaged NASArsquos High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Images (HESSI) spacecraft The vibration test device was accidentally set at a level 10 times higher than appropriate causing structural damage and cracks in two of the satellitersquos four solar arrays Officials estimated that the damage would delay the planned launch by at least six months NASA had designated about US$75 million for the project The faulty test occurring at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory revealed the high degree of precision required of engineers when creating and testing a space-bound craft Although the satellite had vibrated at the incorrect setting for only about 200 milliseconds it still sustained

893 Associated Press ldquoSea Launch Satellite Falls into Ocean Boeing-Led Venture Out $100 millionrdquo 13 March 2000 894 NASA ldquoNASA Renames NEAR Spacecraft for Planetary Science Pioneer Gene Shoemakerrdquo news release 14 March 2000 895 NASA ldquoAerospace Laboratory Encourages Students To Reach for the Stars with NASA Helprdquo news release m00-051 15 March 2000 896 Patty Reinhert ldquoSpace Station Safety at Center of Debaterdquo Houston Chronicle 17 March 2000 Associated Press ldquoGeneral Accounting Office Slams Russian Modulesrdquo 17 March 2000

256


damage However the project engineers were optimistic that the mission would resume eventually897

29 March Planet sleuths Geoffrey W Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley and Steven S Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz announced the discovery of two very small planets outside Earthrsquos solar system Smaller in mass than Saturn the planets resided approximately 100 light-years from Earth Although Marcy and Vogt had concluded that the planets were very hot and that neither planet was capable of supporting life their discovery reinforced the long-standing theory that planets form by ldquosnowball effectrdquo growing from smaller to larger as well as suggesting that many other stars in the galaxy might harbor small planets To make their discovery the astronomers had used the W M Keck Observatory in Hawaii in one phase of a multiyear project to observe stars within 300 light-years of Earth898

30 March Engineers at NASArsquos Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) successfully tested a prototype for the ldquoflying lifeboatrdquo that would transport astronauts to and from the ISS DFRC officials launched a robotic X-38 from under the wing of a B-52 flying at 39000 feet (12000 meters) It free fell for more than 40 seconds before deploying a 5500-square-foot (511-square-meter) parachute which provided a soft landing for the spacecraft The test was a significant step in evaluating the technology planned for the crew return vehicle a low-cost ISS initiative899

31 March The National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) released the results of a survey indicating that NASA employees had the highest level of job satisfaction among federal government employees NASA employees rated very favorably in the categories of employee job satisfaction customer orientation making reinvention a priority management communication and employee participation in cross-functional teams NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced the surveyrsquos findings stating ldquoI am incredibly proud of these results They represent a strong statement of the top-to-bottom excellence of the NASA teamrdquo NPR and the Office of Personnel Management administered the survey to understand employeesrsquo perspectives on ldquoreinvention and workplace issuesrdquo When informed of NASArsquos outstanding score Keith Cowing the editor of Nasawatchcom remarked ldquoIrsquom not at all surprised I used to work there I loved my jobrdquo900

APRIL 2000

4 April

897 Associated Press ldquoNASA Engineers Damage Satellite During Shake Testrdquo 24 March 2000 NASA ldquoHESSI Sustains Damage During Vibration Testingrdquo news release 00-45 24 March 2000 898 NASA ldquoPlanet Hunters on Trail of Worlds Smaller than Saturnrdquo news release 00-47 29 March 2000 John Noble Wilford ldquo2 Relatively Small Planets Are Foundrdquo New York Times 30 March 2000 Dan Vergano ldquoOther Worldly Discoveryrdquo USA Today 30 March 2000 899 Associated Press ldquoSpace Station lsquoLifeboatrsquo Prototype Successfully Testedrdquo 30 March 2000 900 NASA ldquoSurvey Shows NASA Employees Among Most Satisfied Federal Workersrdquo news release 00-52 31 March 2000

257


Russian cosmonauts Sergei V Zalyotin and Alexander Y Kaleri launched from Earth aboard Soyuz TM-30 headed for the Mir space station In their planned two-month mission more than seven months after the last crew members had left the high-maintenance spacecraft the men aimed to restore Mir to working order Many experts had assumed that Mirrsquos days as an active space research center were finished when the previous crew of cosmonauts left the station Although unable to pay to keep cosmonauts aboard Mir Russia was still hoping to obtain funding to keep the space station in operation and had not taken it out of orbit When the Netherlands-based MirCorp had agreed to pay US$20 million to lease the Russian-owned station Russia had scrambled to put together a crew for a repair mission The departure of Soyuz caused some concern in the international space community once again raising speculation regarding Russiarsquos commitment to the International Space Station901

5 April NASA awarded its Commercial and Government Inventions of the Year awards Inventors Anne K St Clair Terry L St Clair and William P Winfree working as a research team at NASArsquos Langley Research Center won the award for inventing a material that they had named Colorless and Low Dielectric Polyimide Thin Film Commercial manufacturers could apply the thermoplastic material to many types of surfaces to protect against ultraviolet radiation and high temperatures The researchers also suggested adding the material to liquids such as paints and cosmetics to provide ultraviolet protection Douglas B Leviton received the Government Inventor of the Year award for his Ultra-High Sensitivity Incremental and Absolute Optical Position Encoder The encoder allowed scientists to calibrate space-bound instruments more accurately than they had done previously Both awards recognized inventions completed during 1999 NASA honored the recipients at a ceremony presenting them with plaques and cash awards902

NASA released a comprehensive new study which found that the levels of ozone in the Arctic stratosphere were declining rapidly In some parts of the stratosphere the atmosphere had lost 60 percent of its ozone over the course of one year The report compiled by hundreds of European and American scientists also demonstrated that changes in the global climate (primarily global warming) threatened to delay the recovery of the ozone layer The scientists were optimistic that the ozone layer would recover eventually but perhaps not until the mid-21st century The study had cost NASA more than US$20 million and the European scientists contributed US$10 million The researchers had gathered data using satellites airplanes and hundreds of weather balloons903

6 April Soyuz successfully docked with the unoccupied Mir space station At the last minute cosmonauts Sergei V Zalyotin and Alexander Y Kaleri docked Soyuz manually because Russian space

901 Florida Today (Brevard FL) ldquoCosmonauts Head to Mir Todayrdquo 4 April 2000 Des Moines Register (IA) 5 April 2000 902 NASA ldquoNASA Selected Its Commercial and Government Inventions of the Yearrdquo news release 00-53 5 April 2000 903 Knight-Ridder News Service ldquoThinning Ozone over Arctic Raises Concernsrdquo 6 April 2000 William K Stevens ldquoNew Survey Shows Growing Loss of Arctic Atmospherersquos Ozonerdquo New York Times 6 April 2000

258


officials feared the autopilot was about to malfunction The cosmonauts planned to concentrate on plugging a small air leak and conducting several scientific experiments during a spacewalk904

In two Nature articles research teams announced that through independent research they had discovered the same result the Ulysses spacecraft had passed through the longest comet tail ever discovered Although the Ulysses vehicle had made its unintended discovery in 1996 when it passed through the tail of Comet Hyakutake scientists had taken four years to confirm the discovery The scientists concluded that Ulysses had discovered a comet tail approximately 300 million miles (483 million kilometers) long ldquoThe discovery was made quite by accident a bit like finding a needle in a haystack when you werenrsquot even looking for it in the first placerdquo was how one project member described the fortunate discovery Ulysses a joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency had launched in 1990 to study solar winds and rays not comets However the spacecraft had picked up some unusual readings during its mission which turned out to be signs of Hyakutakersquos tail extending much farther than previously estimated905

NASA announced that follow-up studies had determined that the distant mass known as TMRshy1C discovered in 1997 was probably not a protoplanet⎯a young still-forming precursor of one of the giant planets In 1998 astronomer Susan Terebey of the Extrasolar Research Corporation had published findings suggesting that the body was a protoplanet several times larger than Jupiter Terebeyrsquos research had received widespread attention However although NASA had released the images of TMR-1C captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) NASA had urged scientists to obtain further verification before identifying the body as a protoplanet After observing the body over several months astronomers had concluded that TMR-1C was a bright star rather than a planet Reflective dust had likely increased the brightness of the star located approximately 135 billion miles (217 billion kilometers) from Earth making it appear to be a planet After her initial high-profile announcement Terebey had continued to study the star using the W M Keck Observatory in Hawaii and had amended her own hypothesis reporting ldquothe new data do not lend weight to the protoplanet interpretation and the results remain consistent with the explanation that TMR-1C may be a background starrdquo Most newspapers gave as much coverage to the news of the changing assessment as they had given to the original discovery906

15 April Princeton University graduate student Xiaohui Fan discovered a distant quasar that scientists believed to be the oldest object ever observed by a human being Fan had worked as part of a team using the 32-foot (10-meter) W M Keck Telescope Estimating that the quasar was 12

904 Associated Press ldquoLatest Space Crew Docks Flawlessly with Mir Space Stationrdquo 6 April 2000 905 Geraint H Jones et al ldquoIdentification of Comet Hyakutakersquos Extremely Long Ion Tail from Magnetic Field Signaturesrdquo Nature 404 no 6778 (6 April 2000) 574 G Gloeckler et al ldquoInterception of Comet Hyakutakersquos Ion Tail at a Distance of 500 Million Kilometersrdquo Nature 404 no 6778 (6 April 2000) 576 NASA ldquoStrangers in the Night Ulysses Spacecraft Meets a Cometrdquo news release 00-55 5 April 2000 Associated Press ldquoSolar Probe Finds Longest Comet Tail Ever Recordedrdquo 10 April 2000 906 James Glanz ldquoScientists Retract Claim of Planet Discoveryrdquo New York Times 7 April 2000 Associated Press ldquoPresumed Protoplanet May Be a Background Starrdquo 7 April 2000 NASA ldquoSuspected Protoplanet May Really Be a Distant Starrdquo news release 00-58 6 April 2000

259


billion years old astronomers expressed their excitement that the benchmark discovery would enable them to observe the universe in its formative stages907

18 April The United States and Brazil signed a treaty giving US aerospace firms access to Brazilrsquos Alcacircntara launch site located just 3deg south of the equator The treaty was the first accord signed by the United States that allowed US satellites to launch from foreign soil The launch sitersquos location near the center of the globe would save money for aerospace companies because satellites could take a shorter path to equatorial orbit requiring less fuel Brazil benefited from the boost to its embryonic space program and the possibility of capturing a portion of the lucrative commercial-satellite business At the time of the agreement US firms controlled two-thirds of the annual US$66 billion commercial satellite industry908

19 April After completing four months of on-orbit checkout and verification Terra the newest in NASArsquos series of Earth Observing System Satellites became functional NASA had developed and launched Terra to monitor Earthrsquos atmosphere on a daily basis Researchers hoped that gathering frequent data would allow a more comprehensive assessment of Earthrsquos climate change According to Yoram J Kaufman Project Scientist for Terra at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) ldquoTerra is measuring and documenting the Earthrsquos vital signs many of them for the first timerdquo In the midst of public and scholarly discussions of global warming and climate change the new research satellite was a step toward understanding the causes of the changes ldquoThe data will help us understand our planet aid in our distinguishing between natural and human-induced changes and show us how the Earthrsquos climate affects the quality of our livesrdquo Kaufman clarified The satellitersquos first transmitted images thrilled scientists The satellite surveyed North America creating images in many different layers to reveal how different levels of population and types of vegetation affected the climate NASA officials planned to make the images obtained by Terra available to business scientists and the public909

20 April NASA revealed what it called ldquothe first detailed images of the early universerdquo captured by the Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics (BOOMERANG) experiment For the BOOMERANG experiment scientists had suspended a powerful telescope from a research balloon circumnavigating the Antarctic Andrew E Lange of California Institute of Technology called the experiment and the resulting images ldquoan incredible triumph of modern cosmologyrdquo For the most part the data obtained by closely measuring variations in the microwave background radiation confirmed scientistsrsquo existing theory that in its earliest days the universe was flatter than it is today According to this theory confirmed by other evidence besides these images the universe is flat and forever expanding In summarizing the significance

907 Associated Press ldquoQuasar Discovered by Student May Be Most Distant Ever Seenrdquo 15 April 2000 Kevin Coughlin ldquoYoung Princeton Expert Finds Piece of a Fledgling Universerdquo Star-Ledger (Newark NJ) 14 April 2000 Washington Post ldquoMost Distant Object Observedrdquo 17 April 2000 908 Reuters ldquoBrazil Joins Space Race with US Satellite Treatyrdquo 17 April 2000 Peter Fritsch ldquoBrazil To Sign US Accord To Enter Satellite Businessrdquo Wall Street Journal 18 April 2000 909 NASA ldquoTerra Spacecraft Open for Businessrdquo news release 00-62 19 April 2000 NASA ldquoNew Views of Earth from Terra Satellite Wednesdayrdquo news release N00-16 18 April 2000

260


of the experiment one Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher stated ldquoitrsquos confirmation of the prediction of our best theory of what caused the structure of the universerdquo910

24 April NASA and the science community celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the deployment of the HST During its decade in space the HST had enabled astronomers to make hundreds of discoveries According to NASA the HSTrsquos ldquorapid-fire rate of discoveries and cosmic images has profoundly changed the science of astronomy and astounded and inspired people around the worldrdquo The US Postal Service and NASA unveiled a series of five stamps designed to commemorate the HSTrsquos decade of contributions The images on the stamps would not have been possible without the HSTrsquos power which enabled it to capture images of the Eagle Nebula Ring Nebula Lagoon Nebula Egg Nebula and Galaxy NGC 1316 NASA held a series of events to celebrate the anniversary Hubblersquos 10 years in space had not begun smoothly as many critics of the program had been quick to point out As the Baltimore Sun remembered the HST was ldquoonce the butt of late-night talk-show jokesrdquo because a flawed mirror initially had prevented the telescope from focusing However after a series of costly repairs the HST had produced a litany of awe-inspiring images The HST made more than 271000 observations in its first 10 years with another decade of usefulness anticipated HST Project Scientist David S Leckrone of NASArsquos GSFC summarized the HSTrsquos impact ldquoNot since Galileo aimed a small 30-power telescope into the night sky in 1609 has humanityrsquos vision of the universe been so revolutionized in such a short time span by a single instrumentrdquo911

25 April NASA announced that a team of scientists had used the Chandra X-ray Observatory to solve one of astronomyrsquos fundamental problems⎯determining the distance from Earth to a cosmic object Peter Predehl the lead researcher on the project had found that by scattering x-rays between Earth and a given object the dust grains and scattered materials between the two points could serve as measuring posts to determine the distance covered by the x-ray Because of the Chandra Observatoryrsquos superior resolution and strength particles that scientists could not otherwise have observed would serve as points of context Researchers were confident that they could use the new approach to help determine the size of nearby galaxies Furthermore the newly devised means of measuring the distance between objects and Earth had implications for understanding the universe and its age912

MAY 2000

1 May In delivering the Louisiana State University Chancellorrsquos Distinguished Lecture NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced that ldquoin no less than 10 and no more than 20 yearsrdquo US astronauts would land on Mars Proclaiming that Mars was NASArsquos next frontier Goldin

910 Associated Press ldquoScientists Reveal First Detailed Images of Early Universerdquo 27 April 2000 NASA ldquoThe Universe in Its Infancy New Findings Unveiled at News Briefingrdquo news release N00-17 20 April 2000 911 NASA ldquoApril 24 Marks a Triumphant Ten Years in Space for Hubble Telescoperdquo news release 00-59 11 April 2000 NASA ldquoNASA US Postal Service To Celebrate Hubble Space Telescope 10th Anniversary with Stamp Unveiling and Other Eventsrdquo news release N00-14 4 April 2000 Frank D Roylance ldquoHubble Goes from Flop to Star Once the Butt of Jokes Telescope Now Thrills with Space Imagesrdquo Baltimore Sun (MD) 21 April 2000 912 NASA ldquoChandra Shows New Way To Measure Cosmic Distancesrdquo news release 00-66 25 April 2000

261


stated that the Red Planet held special promise for researchers The possible presence of water and other signs of life on Mars intrigued scientists making a Mars landing a priority for NASA In addition because scientists have estimated that the two planets are roughly the same age the exploration of Mars could lead to new information about Earth Goldin made his remarks in the aftermath of the high-profile crash of Mars Polar Lander913

NASA announced the creation of a new office dedicated to improving heath and safety for its workforce NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin appointed Dr Arnauld E Nicogossian as Chief Health and Medical Officer giving him the responsibility for developing programs to research and implement the best medical procedures for astronauts and other NASA personnel ldquoOn the ground and in space rapid advances in medical knowledge and tools need to be adapted and incorporated into our planning and practicesrdquo Goldin said when announcing the new position Nicogossian faced the task of establishing NASArsquos Health Council in keeping with NASArsquos commitment to making heath and safety its number-one priority914

2 May The Carrier Test Pilot Hall of Honor aboard the USS Yorktown inducted US Senator John H Glenn Jr honoring him for his distinguished aviation career before becoming an astronaut Before Glenn became the first man to orbit Earth he had already achieved a long record of flight exploits Glennrsquos fellow test pilot Neil A Armstrong the first astronaut to walk on the Moon attended the induction Upon receiving the award Glenn expressed his gratitude at joining the distinguished ranks of the Hall of Honor and spoke of his lifetime of flight experiences915

3 May The ldquoLove Bugrdquo computer virus infected the computer system of NASA along with those of the Pentagon the CIA Microsoft Corporation Ford Motor Company and other major business and government offices Considered one of the most damaging and costly computer viruses in history ldquoLove Bugrdquo spread primarily through e-mail messages corrupting files on millions of computers Four of NASArsquos 10 space centers suffered from the attack causing both Johnson Space Center (JSC) and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to shut down e-mail and other communication between computers916

News reached the United States that space debris had crashed to the ground near Johannesburg South Africa prompting NASA to respond Several metal balls had fallen from the sky leaving 8-inch (20-centimeter) dents in the ground NASA scientists clarified that the debris probably came from a Delta rocket launched in 1996 Chief Scientist for Orbital Debris Nicholas L Johnson explained that manufactured objects sent into space plummet back to Earth nearly every day landing mostly in the ocean Johnson also stated that NASA would compensate anyone hurt by the falling debris remarking that no such injuries had occurred in more than 40 years917

913 Associated Press ldquoRed Planet Is Next Frontierrdquo 2 May 2000 914 NASA ldquoNASA Creates New Office To Foster Heath and Safetyrdquo news release 00-69 1 May 2000 915 Associated Press ldquoGlenn Honored for Test Pilotrsquos Role as Armstrong Watchesrdquo 3 May 2000 916 Los Angeles Times ldquoFast Moving Virus Hits Computers Worldwiderdquo 5 May 2000 917 Associated Press ldquoHail of Metal Balls Puzzles Farmers Until NASA Steps Inrdquo 3 May 2000

262


NASA successfully launched the GOES-L satellite aboard an Atlas 2A rocket from Cape Canaveral Florida The new weather satellite would provide the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with detailed readings on severe weather systems affecting the United States NASA deemed the GOES-L satellite a top priority because of the declining returns of the aging GOES-8 satellite NASA had delayed the US$220 million satellite project because of engine problems causing anxiety to weather forecasters who depended on the satellites to track the powerful hurricanes that affected the United States in 1999 As Director of the National Weather Servicersquos Southern Region William Proenza explained ldquoIt is vitally important that we have continuity of data or we may be finding ourselves impaired in our ability of forecastingrdquo NASA had kept the May 2000 launch of the GOES-L on track despite some calls to postpone it so that NASA could launch Shuttle Atlantis on an urgent repair mission to the International Space Station (ISS) However NASA officials had determined that the risk of inadequate weather forecasting was too great to take a chance on delaying the launch918

4 May Nature published a letter from physicist Leonard Reiffel revealing that during the Cold War in the 1950s the United States had funded a research program focused on detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon part of a plan to demonstrate the strength of the US military The Armour Research Foundation⎯now a part of Illinois Institute of Technology⎯had directed the project known as A Study of Lunar Research Flights Astronomer Carl Sagan then a young graduate student had worked on the project As Reiffel explained Cold War politics had dramatically affected science agendas during the period ldquoThere was lots of talk on the part of the Air Force about the [M]oon being lsquomilitary high groundrsquordquo The scenario had called for the US Air Force to launch a small nuclear device from an undisclosed location and detonate it on the Moon Those planning the detonation had selected an atomic bomb because a hydrogen explosive would have been too heavy for a rocket to carry 238000 miles (383000 kilometers) to the lunar landing spot Military leaders eventually called off the plan because of concern that during the building and launch of the bomb a nuclear accident could occur on Earth919

Astronomers using the telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico captured the first-ever images of the so-called Metal Dog Bone asteroid officially named 216 Kleopatra Scientists had categorized the asteroid as a main-belt asteroid theorizing that the New Jerseyndashsized rock was the result of an ancient violent collision Steven Ostro of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory called the find ldquoone of the most unusual asteroids wersquove seen in the [s]olar [s]ystemrdquo Scientists made the discovery by bouncing radar signals off the asteroid and cataloging the signalsrsquo echoes By gathering a comprehensive collection of echoes the research team had been able to assemble a computer model of the asteroidrsquos shape The use of radar signals with a moderately powered telescope had made the long-distance discovery possible Ostro marveled at the technology describing the find as akin to ldquousing a Los Angeles telescope the size of the human eyersquos lens to image a car in New Yorkrdquo Many of the astronomers working on the project spoke of their

918 Associated Press ldquoNASA Launches Hurricane-Tracking Satelliterdquo 3 May 2000 Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News ldquoWeather Satellite Has Successful Launch Heads for Orbitrdquo 3 May 2000 919 Leonard Reiffel ldquoSagan Breached Security by Revealing US Work on a Lunar Bomb Projectrdquo Nature 405 no 6782 (4 May 2000) 13minus14 Associated Press ldquoPhysicist Says US Contemplated Detonating an Atom Bomb on the Moonrdquo 18 May 2000

263


amazement at the size shape and metallic complexion of the asteroid They also clarified that the asteroid posed no danger to Earth920

5 May Laurence Vico released a study on astronautsrsquo loss of bone density because of time spent in space Vico and his team of researchers had examined the bone-mineral density of 15 cosmonauts who had spent from one to six months aboard the Mir space station They had found a ldquostrikingrdquo loss of bone density in some cases as serious as that experienced by paraplegic patients The team of doctors suggested that physicians should examine astronauts more closely for susceptibility to bone-weakening conditions such as osteoporosis before they traveled into space and that postflight recovery periods should be much longer than previous standards dictated The sample study found that astronauts experienced an average bone-density loss of more than 5 percent and that the lost bone did not immediately regenerate after postflight recovery periods Scientists had long been aware of the physical challenges posed by the lack of gravity in the space environment Therefore NASA and the space agencies of other countries had carefully dictated diet and exercise programs for astronauts The study had special relevance however because the international space community was continuing work on the ISS and anticipating even longer stays in space921

12 May The board appointed to investigate the mishap that had damaged the High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI) spacecraft in preflight testing announced its findings The investigators had discovered that the computer controlling the vibration device had sensed an abnormally high level of static friction and had responded by delivering approximately 10 times the exertion of gravity suitable for the test A slight misalignment of the shaker mechanism had proved just enough to throw off the preflight testing The board had determined that the accident had been avoidable Routine maintenance and a pretest of the testing device itself would have caught the problem before any damage had occurred NASA planned for the HESSI satellite to undergo repairs at the University of California at Berkeley922

Cosmonauts Sergei V Zalyotin and Alexander Y Kaleri conducted a 5-hour spacewalk to repair tiny cracks weakening the hull of the Mir space station The cracks the result of the June 1997 collision of a cargo craft with the station had caused the module to lose air pressure steadily The spacewalk was not the first attempt to solve the problem but previous teams had been unable to locate the cracks Zalyotin and Kaleri tested a new ldquocosmic version of super gluerdquo designed to seal the fractures even in the harsh environment of space The Russian Space Agency clarified that the cracks were not crippling to the space station and that the crew could maintain acceptable levels of air pressure by manipulating oxygen outflow inside Mir However the agency hoped to solve the problem permanently because Russia planned to use the aging space station for commercial purposes The Netherlands-based MirCorp which had committed nearly

920 NASA ldquoAstronomers Catch Images of Giant Metal Dog Bone Asteroidrdquo news release 00-74 4 May 2000 921 Birmingham Post (AL) ldquoSerious Bone Loss for Cosmonauts Not Mir Speculationrdquo 5 May 2000 922 NASA ldquoBoard Finds Cause of HESSI Mishaprdquo news release 00-80 12 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoNASA Identifies Causes of Test Accident that Broke Spacecraftrdquo 12 May 2000

264


US$20 million to leasing Mir observed the cosmonautsrsquo activities calling the mission the first privately funded spacewalk in history923

19 May Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida on Mission STS-101 bound for the ISS The seven-astronaut crew comprised Americans⎯James D Halsell Jr Scott J Horowitz Susan J Helms James S Voss Mary Ellen Weber and Jeffrey N Williams⎯and Russian cosmonaut Yury V Usachev The crew planned to make repairs to the space station focusing primarily on replacing four malfunctioning solar-powered batteries The crew also planned to use the thrusters of the Shuttle to realign the ISSrsquos orbit Having been unoccupied and underpowered for nearly a year the station had fallen below the optimal orbiting altitude The station had gradually descended at a rate of about 15 miles (24 kilometers) per week The Shuttle mission plan also called for Atlantisrsquos crew to repair a damaged radio antenna and stabilize a shaky construction crane mounted on the outside of the ISS Because of volatile weather in April 2000 and a full docket of rocket launches NASA had delayed Atlantisrsquos launch three times pushing the Shuttlersquos liftoff into mid-May Russian cosmonaut Yury V Usachev a veteran of two tenures aboard Mir had spent more time in space than the rest of Atlantisrsquos crew combined924

22 May Astronauts Jeffrey N Williams and James S Voss conducted a 6-hour spacewalk to make repairs to the ISS The pair successfully repaired the stationrsquos construction crane replaced a failed antenna and began installing a much larger Russian-built crane designed to aid workers in adding the final modules to the ISS NASA officials highlighted the exercise as a precursor of the maintenance schedule to come ldquoThis spacewalk was a good example of what future spacewalks are going to look like where we will need to perform maintenance on the space stationrdquo The spacewalk occurred after Atlantis had docked at the space station but while the hatch doors between the two spacecraft remained shut925

23 May Shuttle Atlantis commanded by James D Halsell Jr began boosting the ISS into a higher orbit By firing its steering jets 27 times during a 1-hour push Shuttle Atlantis raised the space station about 9 miles (14 kilometers) farther from Earth than it had been The effort was the first of three planned realignment maneuvers NASA officials wanted to allow Atlantisrsquos thrusters to have a day to cool down before continuing with the project In addition to changing the ISSrsquos orbit Atlantisrsquos astronauts serviced the exterior of the space station and replaced four of its failing

923 Reuters ldquoRussia Russian Cosmonauts Leave Mir and Start Spacewalkrdquo 12 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoMir Cosmonauts Experiment with Space Glue To Seal Cracksrdquo 12 May 2000 924 Tom Breen ldquoNASA Goes for 4th Launch Try in a Monthrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 19 May 2000 Reuters ldquoUSA Update 1⎯Shuttle Atlantis Lifts Off from Floridardquo 19 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoAtlantis Lifts Off on Fourth Tryrdquo 18 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoSix Americans One Russian Bound for Space Stationrdquo 19 May 2000 925 Washington Post ldquoSpacewalkers Begin Repairs on Orbiting Station Wobbly Crane Is Secured Another Awaits Completionrdquo 22 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoOutside Repairs Finished Astronauts Ready To Head Inside Space Stationrdquo 22 May 2000

265


batteries The crew hoped that the latter procedure would stop the gradual drop in elevation that the ISS had been experiencing during the months before Atlantisrsquos visit926

28 May NASA controllers began sending signals to the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory to perform a series of maneuvers that would ultimately end in the satellite crashing into the Pacific Ocean The endgame commands marked the conclusion of a successful nine-year mission which had recorded data on more than 2500 gamma-ray bursts The US$670 million satellite launched on 5 April 1991 aboard Mission STS-37 had provided researchers with never-before-seen images of explosions throughout the universe ldquoIt will be like losing a member of the familyrdquo remarked one NASA scientist who had worked on the program since 1979 NASA officials had decided to end the satellitersquos space tenure because of the possibility that the aging satellite might become unresponsive and plummet out of control to Earth By initiating the satellitersquos demise NASA could control the landing area of the 17-ton (15400-kilogram or 154-tonne) spacecraft Some critics charged NASA with being too conservative because it had based its decision on the 1-inshy1000 odds that an uncontrolled descent of the satellite to Earth would result in injuries927

29 May Atlantis touched down at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida only the 14th time that a NASA Shuttle had landed in darkness NASA controllers used infrared cameras to monitor the Shuttlersquos final descent The return of the Shuttle ended the crucial mission to repair the ISS and reset the space stationrsquos orbit to an optimal altitude NASArsquos Mission Control congratulating the crew on a ldquosuper missionrdquo began almost immediately to anticipate the flurry of missions that would finally complete construction on the ISS Atlantis had sustained minor damage during the trip mainly dents and scratches on its wings caused by ice Three members of the returning crew astronauts Susan J Helms and James S Voss and cosmonaut Yury V Usachev had a special interest in monitoring the ISSrsquos completion because they had been selected for the second research crew to the ISS and would make a long-term stay aboard the research station928

JUNE 2000

2 June NASA announced a partnership with Dreamtime Holdings Inc a start-up company backed by Lockheed Martin to provide the International Space Station (ISS) with high-definition television and to create digital archives for NASA The agreement was NASArsquos first involving a commercial partner that would provide support for the ISS Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced the partnership at NASArsquos Ames Research Center located in the high-technology hub of Californiarsquos Silicon Valley predicting that the partnership would move NASA to the forefront of the information age and terming it ldquoinnovative government at its bestrdquo Dreamtime planned to spend US$100 million on the project which would give civilians access to nevershy

926 Los Angeles Times ldquoShuttle Gives Space Station a Boostrdquo 24 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoAtlantis Lifts Space Station to Right Orbitrdquo 24 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoSpace Station Gets Fresh Batteriesrdquo 24 May 2000927 James Orberg ldquoPlan To Scrap Satellite Sacrifices Sciencerdquo USA Today 24 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoNASA To Destroy Compton Satellite After Nine Yearsrdquo 28 May 2000 928 William Harwood ldquoShuttle Ends Repair Trip to Stationrdquo Washington Post 30 May 2000 USA Today ldquoShuttle Crew Returns from Space Station Repair Missionrdquo 30 May 2000 Associated Press ldquoNighttime Landing Ends Shuttle Repair Missionrdquo 30 May 2000

266


before-seen images of the Space Shuttles and of NASA missions The pact resulted from the Commercial Space Act of 1998 enacted to increase commercial involvement in and funding for the ISS929

4 June NASA de-orbited the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory after nine years in orbit in a controlled reentry into Earthrsquos atmosphere Director of NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center Alphonse V Diaz called the event ldquoa bittersweet day for NASArdquo The spacecraft NASArsquos ldquogamma-ray equivalentrdquo of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) launched in 1991 with four instruments designed to observe gamma rays During the course of its impressive tenure the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory had yielded valuable data regarding the previously little-known gamma-ray sky The 17-ton (15400-kilogram or 154-tonne) US$670 million research craft had orbited Earth for long after its predicted lifespan Some critics had opposed bringing the craft crashing to Earth while it was still providing useful data In 1999 however NASA engineers had detected problems with one of the satellitersquos control gyroscopes After considering sending maintenance missions to repair the craft or training the Shuttle crew to capture the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and bring it back to Earth for service NASA officials had determined that the prudent response was controlled de-orbit and preemptive destruction of the satellite NASA engineers used a series of engine burns to guide the satellite in its reentry into Earthrsquos atmosphere and to direct the pieces of debris from the craft to crash into the Pacific Ocean Like NASArsquos efforts to control the reentry of Skylab in 1979 this maneuver was one of the first times that NASA had intentionally destroyed one of its own craft by guiding its reentry into Earthrsquos atmosphere930

5 June At the American Astronomical Society convention scientists Karl Gebhardt and Douglas O Richstone announced that an extensive survey of more than 30 galaxies had revealed that black holes reach their large size through gradual growth Previously some research had suggested the opposite⎯that black holes were simply ldquobornrdquo big Using the HST Gebhardt and Richstone had led a team of astronomers in determining the size of black holes in different galaxies They found that although small galaxies tend to have smaller black holes the largest known galaxies have mammoth black holes The astronomers suspected that the black holes had ldquogrown uprdquo along with the galaxies where they resided feeding on gas and stars to acquire increasing mass Although further research must determine the precise correlation between black hole and galaxy size the scientific community greeted news of the discovery with great interest The HST had not only made the discovery possible but had provided the opportunity for scientists to continue ldquoblack hole huntingrdquo to tabulate more exact answers931

929 NASA ldquoNASA Dreamtime Partnership Propels Space Information Age to New Heightsrdquo news release 00-87 2 June 2000 Frank Morring Jr ldquoStartup To Spend $100 Million Digitizing Station NASA Archivesrdquo Aerospace Daily 2 June 2000 930 NASA ldquoStatus Report 2 Second Deorbit Burn for Observatory Successful Time Change for Last Two Burnsrdquo news release 1 July 2000 NASA ldquoFinal Status Report Compton Gamma Ray Observatory Safely Returns to Earthrdquo news release 4 June 2000 Michael E Ruane ldquoA Satellitersquos Bittersweet Splashdown Scientists Nostalgic Angry About Demise of Md-Based Projectrdquo Washington Post 2 June 2000 931 NASA ldquoBlack Holes Shed Light on Galaxy Formationrdquo news release 00-88 5 June 2000

267


Scientists at the American Astronomical Society convention also unveiled the first detailed map of the region of the universe inhabited by Earth Using an Australian robotic telescope which measured distances between more than 100000 galaxies researchers had charted the locations of galaxies dark regions and cosmic clusters Perhaps most significantly the new map supported a long-standing theory regarding the size limits of cosmic structures Because of the relatively small scope of previous mapping surveys scientists had questioned whether the known standards of cosmic size were representative The newest map however did not reveal any cosmic structure outside of previous standards Therefore scientists could support with greater conviction the idea that size limits existed as the universe evolved The researchers termed the limits the ldquoend of greatnessrdquo932

6 June After two earlier unsuccessful trials Russia launched without incident a modified Proton rocket carrying a large Gorizont communications satellite Propulsion-system flaws had triggered explosions of the Proton rocket in previous trials The United States viewed the successful test launch as a positive sign of Russiarsquos commitment to the ISS project a boost for the strained relationship between the two countries After the failed tests a joint NASA-Russian Space Agency research crew had determined that production flaws in the turbomachinery of the rocketrsquos second and third stages including the presence of contaminants such as asbestos cloth and metal fragments had caused the problems Russia planned to test the Proton rocket again before scheduling the much-delayed delivery of its crew module to the ISS933

NASA announced that its Chandra X-ray Observatory had revealed a ldquoluminous spike of x-raysrdquo known as a hot spot located approximately 800000 light-years away from its black-hole source Scientists commented that the images captured x-ray behavior that astronomers had not predicted Andrew S Wilson of the University of Maryland explained ldquothe brightness and the spectrum of the x-rays are very different from what theory projectsrdquo A possible explanation offered for the brilliant hot spot of x-rays was that a series of shock waves had catapulted across the galaxy electrons with energies as high as 50 thousand billion times the energy of light934

13 June Having restored Liberty Bell 7 which had spent 38 years at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean NASA placed the space capsule on display at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Liberty Bell 7 had carried astronaut Virgil I ldquoGusrdquo Grissom into space on 21 July 1961 in NASArsquos second piloted spaceflight After its pathbreaking 15-minute suborbital flight the capsule had descended to the ocean The hatch of Liberty Bell 7 had blown off just after landing causing the capsule to fill with water and almost drowning Grissom A helicopter present at the landing had tried to pull the Liberty Bell 7 out of the water but the waterlogged capsule had become too heavy and the crew had to cut it loose leaving it to sink Regarding the hatchrsquos failure astronaut Grissom had maintained until his death in the 1967 Apollo launchpad fire that he had followed proper protocol Nearly 40 years after the ocean landing the Discovery Channel had funded a recovery mission that had brought the historic spacecraft out of the ocean Although divers had not found the hatch previous NASA investigations had supported Grissomrsquos claim that human error had

932 James Glanz ldquoRobotic Telescope Affirms Assumption on Universersquos Birthrdquo New York Times 7 June 2000 933 Mark Carreau ldquoRocket Gives Space Station a Liferdquo Houston Chronicle 7 June 2000 934 NASA ldquoSpectacular X-ray Jet Points Toward Cosmic Energy Boosterrdquo news release 00-89 6 June 2000

268


not caused the hatch failure NASA had restored the capsule placing it in a clear plastic display case so that visitors to KSC could peer inside the spacecraft935

16 June After spending more than two months aboard the Mir space station Russian cosmonauts returned to Earth According to MirCorp the mission had been the first privately funded crewed mission to Mir Sergei V Zalyotin and Alexander Y Kaleri landed safely in Kazakhstan having spent most of their time aboard the Russian spacecraft conducting crucial repairs To keep the station running MirCorp had signed a lease agreement for Mir and paid for the mission However with the return of Zalyotin and Kaleri Russia placed on hold the prospect of continuing Mir even if supported with private funds ldquoIf there is no money Mir will not flyrdquo Russian Space Agency Director General Yuri N Koptev stated at the end of the mission Russian officials indicated that the Russian Space Agency would leave the space station unpiloted once again until private investors could fund another mission The continuing focus on Mir while the building of Russiarsquos ISS module ran far behind schedule agitated some NASA officials and international space leaders936

NASA and the Boeing Company announced an agreement to use Boeingrsquos Delta Launch Services Inc for a variety of NASA missions The contract estimated to be worth at least US$168 million included options to extend the agreement NASA also awarded both Boeing and Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services Inc indefinite deliveryndashindefinite quantity contracts for 10 years The agreements solidified NASArsquos partnerships with the two major aerospace companies A NASA spokesperson clarified the reasons for the extension of the relationships saying that Boeing and Lockheed ldquowere selected based on their ability to meet NASArsquos highly critical future mission requirements and their proven track records for providing a quality productrdquo At the time of the agreement with Boeing the company had flown 82 missions for NASA with a success rate of 98 percent937

19 June NASA celebrated the 20th anniversary of its Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP) created to encourage promising high school students especially minorities to pursue careers in math science and engineering During the first 20 years of the program nearly 3000 students participated and 3300 NASA employees served as SHARP mentors Most SHARP student participants had served as interns at one of NASArsquos research centers during the summer months NASA had begun the program and had continued to fund it as part of its educational mission938

21 June

935 Associated Press ldquoGrissomrsquos Capsule Back at Space Centerrdquo 14 June 2000 936 Associated Press ldquoMir Cosmonauts Return to Earthrdquo 15 June 2000 Associated Press ldquoMir Cosmonauts Prepare To Return to Earthrdquo 15 June 2000 CNNcom ldquoFirst Privately Funded Manned Space Mission Blasts Off for Mir 4 April 2000 httparchivescnncom2000TECHspace0404russiamir01 (accessed 15 July 2008) 937 The Boeing Company ldquoBoeing Delta Rockets To Launch Next-Generation NASA Space Craftrdquo news release 16 June 2000 NASA ldquoNASA Awards Launch Services Contractsrdquo news release c00-e 16 June 2000 Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) ldquoBoeing Wins $168 Million NASA Order for 3 More Delta II Launches Optionsrdquo 19 June 2000 938 NASA ldquoNASArsquos SHARP Program Celebrates 20 Years of Excellencerdquo news release 00-96 19 June 2000

269


NASA reported to the public that Mars Global Surveyor had captured images depicting erosion and soil deposits consistent with the presence of flowing water on the planet in the past Researchers had long postulated that billions of years ago Marsrsquos surface held abundant water which had dried up as the planetrsquos atmosphere thinned Because scientists had suggested that the one-time presence of water on Mars might indicate the one-time presence of life on the planet the new evidence created significant excitement in the scientific community In announcing the find NASA reported that it ldquocould turn out to be a landmark discoveryrdquo but cautioned against drawing conclusions from the images without further analysis Furthermore the images suggested that water might have been present on the planet more recently than previously thought Associate Administrator for Space Science Edward J Weiler explained ldquoFor two decades scientists have debated whether liquid water might have existed on the surface of Mars just a few billion years ago With todayrsquos discovery wersquore no longer talking about a distant time The debate has moved to present-day Marsrdquo939

22 June After a lengthy legislative battle the US House of Representatives approved a US$60 million increase for NASA in its FY 2001 budget Although the amount was less than the Clinton administration had requested for NASA the spending proposal marked the end of several years of cost cutting for NASA Even during a period of budget surpluses NASA had not achieved the victory without a fight Some members of Congress concerned over the delay in the completion of the ISS had introduced a floor amendment to delete all funding for the ISS However the House had roundly defeated the budget-slashing amendment as it had in previous years with a vote of 325 to 98 Noting that the ISS was nearly complete Representative Robert E Cramer (DshyAL) spoke for NASA proponents when he said ldquoThis is not the time to pull the rug out from under this programrdquo940

30 June NASA launched the most advanced communications satellite it had ever developed the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-H (TDRS-H) created to provide communication between the Space Shuttles ISS HST and NASA control centers Intended to replace a communications satellite that had been in place since 1983 and had surpassed its mission-designed lifetime the new TDRS-H was the first of three communications satellites planned to link NASArsquos space-bound vehicles NASA had designated nearly US$500 million for the design building and launch of the three new satellites The TDRS-H launched aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIA rocket separating from it after about 30 minutes of flight Once the satellite reached 171deg longitude it became operational941

939 Kathy Sawyer ldquoMars Craft Finds Evidence of Waterrdquo Washington Post 22 June 2000 William F Nicholson ldquoReports NASA Finds Evidence of Water on Marsrdquo USA Today 21 June 2000 NASA ldquoNew Images Suggest Present-Day Sources of Liquid Water on Marsrdquo news release 00-99 22 June 2000 940 Tamara Lytle ldquoHouse OKs Giving NASA $137 Billion in 2001 Fiscal Yearrdquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 22 June 2000 Gannett News Service ldquoHouse Votes Down Measure To Cut Space Stationrdquo 22 June 2000 941 Lockheed Martin Inc ldquoInternational Launch Services and Lockheed Martin Provide Mission Success for NASA Satellite Launchrdquo news release 30 June 2000 NASA ldquoAdvanced Communications Satellite Ready To Serve New Millennium Space Projectsrdquo news release 00-98 21 June 2000

270


JULY 2000

4 July Russia launched a new defense and spy satellite aboard a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome More concerned with the launch vehicle than with the military satellite US space officials praised the successful operation of the Proton-K rocket a rocket similar in type to those that had been involved in several launch accidents during 1999 The United States had a particular interest in the launch because Russia planned to carry a module built for the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Proton rocket Russia had built the Zvezda module to provide living space for the ISS crew A spokesperson for the Russian Space Agency stated that the rocketrsquos successful launch confirmed Russiarsquos ability to transport its Zvezda module ldquoThis launch is important in estimating the readiness of the Proton-K booster rocket for a more important mission July 12 when the same kind of booster will carry the Russian-built Zvezda service module to the ISSrdquo The Russian Space Agency had overcome significant financial shortfalls to complete production on both the Proton-K rocket and the Zvezda module942

7 July Engineers completed a weeklong series of tests on the US-built Destiny laboratory planned to launch to the ISS in 2001 ensuring that the module had no leaks and would provide a safe vacuum-sealed environment in which the ISS astronauts could conduct research NASA and the Boeing Company had worked together to test the 32000-pound (14500-kilogram) research laboratory Placing Destiny in a pressurized chamber engineers had monitored gas levels inside the module over the course of the week Tip Talone Director of the ISS Payload Process at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) characterized the results as ldquoa large step in meeting the labrsquos lsquoDestinyrsquordquo stating that the laboratory had ldquoexceeded expectationsrdquo943

12 July After nearly two years of delays and many questions regarding the Russian Space Agencyrsquos commitment to the ISS Russia successfully launched the Zvezda module aboard a Proton rocket Building the 22-ton (20000-kilogram or 20-tonne) US$320 million module to provide living quarters for researchers aboard the ISS had severely taxed the Russian space program To bring the project to fruition Russia had relied on the resourcefulness of its scientists and engineers as well as resorting to creative financing arrangements such as selling the US-based Pizza Hut Company an advertisement for display on the side of the Proton launch rocket Russia had insured Zvezdarsquos launch for more than US$1 billion Hundreds of spectators representing aerospace companies from Russia and Western countries witnessed the launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Watching the launch with Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N Koptev NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin praised the successful completion of the long-awaited module ldquoThe Russians have gone through all sorts of difficulty with their economy the political changes and a whole variety of other problems and they came through and did what they said they were going to dordquo Koptev made clear the high stakes for future Russian space projects based on the successful launch and linkup of Zvezda ldquoThis is 10 years of work and the success of this launch will determine to a large extent whether the Russian space programme continues or notrdquo The international space community greeted news of the

942 Reuters ldquoRussia Russia Launches Proton Rocket Ahead of Space Labrdquo 5 July 2000 943 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoSpace State Laboratory Exceeds Expectations in Vacuum Chamber Testrdquo 7 July 2000

271


launch as a sign that the much-postponed ISS was nearing completion Although Russia had plans to contribute further portals to the ISS none of its subsequent contributions had as much potential to delay the international effort944

13 July Astronaut Eileen M Collins speaking for NASA publicly responded to the report of the Commission for the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science Engineering and Technology Development The Commission had reported that a severe shortage of high-tech workers threatened economic growth in the United States highlighting the need to increase funding from both private and governmental sources to improve education in science and engineering The report had emphasized that improved education in these fields was necessary if the United States hoped to continue training engineers and researchers qualified to bring NASArsquos exploratory mission to fruition Citing the example of her own educational and career path Collins called for further support for research and education in mathematics science engineering and technology Both the Commissionrsquos report and Collinsrsquos response continued an ongoing debate over how to change the trend among students to choose paths of study outside of the fields of science and technology In 1999 NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin had also testified before the US House Committee on Science and Technology regarding the challenge of drawing young people to careers as scientists and engineers945

14 July NASA released to the Internet a database of 19 million celestial images the largest collection of images of stars and other celestial bodies ever made freely available for public use The rapid improvement of technology had made possible the release which brought to home computers information that could have filled 6000 CD-ROMs The Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) which used two 51-inch (130-centimeter) telescopes to survey the sky had collected the images The University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory had collaborated on 2MASS creating a database of great value to scholars and the public alike946

William G Fastie known for helping establish the prestigious Johns Hopkins University space program and for inventing the spectrometer died in Baltimore at the age of 83 Fastie often called the father of the Hopkins space program was one of the United Statesrsquo preeminent astrophysicists His spectrometer which measured the spectrum of light helping scientists gather data about other planets was not only innovative but also rugged enough to travel into space947

15 July

944 Associated Press ldquoRussian Launching Clears Way for Space Stationrdquo 13 July 2000 USA Today ldquoRussia Sends Module of Space Station into Orbitrdquo 12 July 2000 Newsday (Long Island NY) ldquoLaunch of Key Module for Space Station Is Setrdquo 11 July 2000 Reuters ldquoRussia Space Station Launch Insured for over $1 Blnrdquo 12 July 2000 Reuters ldquoKazakhstan Update 2-Russia Launches Key Module for ISSrdquo 12 July 2000 945 NASA ldquoNASA Supports High-Tech Workforce Reflecting Diversity of Americardquo news release 00-106 13 July 2000 946 NASA ldquoTwin-Telescope Sky Survey lsquoGives You the Starsrsquordquo news release 00-108 14 July 2000 947 Alice Lukens ldquoWilliam G Fastie 83 Hopkins Astrophysicist Designed Spectrometerrdquo Baltimore Sun (MD) 17 July 2000

272


As Russiarsquos Zvezda module its major contribution to the ISS continued its journey toward the ISS NASA celebrated the 25th anniversary of one of the first international collaborative missions The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project had launched on 15 July 1975 when American astronauts Thomas P Stafford Vance D Brand and Donald K Slayton lifted off aboard an Apollo spacecraft atop a Saturn 1B rocket During the course of their nine-day mission the NASA crew had docked the United Statesrsquo Apollo with Russiarsquos Soyuz 19 spacecraft successfully and without incident The Cold Warndashera mission testing the ability of NASA spacecraft to link with Russian ones had represented a significant step toward the development of international collaboration in future space exploration948

The National Aviation Hall of Fame inducted four new members at a black-tie dinner and formal enshrinement ceremony at the Dayton Convention Center in Dayton Ohio Apollo astronaut Edwin E ldquoBuzzrdquo Aldrin Jr joined fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Neil A Armstrong in the Hall of Fame Aviators previously inducted to the Hall of Fame included Eugene A Cernan the last Apollo astronaut to walk on the Moon Laurence C ldquoBillrdquo Craigie the first US military aviator to fly a jet aircraft and Thomas B McGuire Jr the second-leading fighter ace in US Air Force history The National Aviation Hall of Famersquos Class of 2000 joined 166 award-winning aviators already chosen for the honor949

16 July The first of two Cluster spacecraft launches took place from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan NASA and the European Space Agency had formed a partnership to develop and build the exploration craft designed to travel around the Earth in a tetrahedral formation collecting data on solar wind Space officials planned to launch two additional Cluster craft one month after the first two had entered their orbiting pattern With four satellites launched and flying in formation scientists expected to harvest data about the ldquoturbulent battlerdquo raging between Earthrsquos magnetic field and the solar winds blowing at an estimated rate of 1ndash2 million miles (16ndash32 million kilometers) per hour Researchers also hoped the new information would help scientists understand other interactions between the Earth and the Sun Each of the four Cluster spacecraft carried instruments to measure the patterns of electrons and the presence of protons and helium as well as instruments to monitor the characteristics of electronic fields solar wind and plasma waves950

18 July NASA announced that SPX Services Solutions had obtained a license to use NASA-patented technology to monitor more carefully levels of exhaust produced by the United Statesrsquo millions of motor vehicles NASA had developed its atmospheric remote-sensing technology to track greenhouse gases and to monitor Earthrsquos ozone layer Combining government and private forces researchers intended to focus on the pollution output of motor vehicles particularly that of individual automobiles SPX Services planned to design a device that would enable a driver to test his or her own vehicle to determine its compliance with US Clean Air Act standards rather

948 NASA ldquoAnniversary of Apollo Soyuz Test Project Observedrdquo news release N00-30 11 July 2000 Reuters ldquoUS Russia Mark Space Jubilee as New Era Beckonsrdquo 11 July 2000 949 Dayton Daily News (OH) ldquoAstronaut Meets a Fan Aviation Hall of Fame Enshrines 4 Morerdquo 16 July 2000 950 NASA ldquoNew Cluster Mission To Provide Unprecedented Detail about Space Weatherrdquo news release 00-105 13 July 2000

273


than requiring the driver to take it to an auto mechanic for an emissions test The goal of self-monitoring suited the increasingly popular idea of encouraging individuals to accept personal responsibility for protecting Earth from noxious pollutants951

20 July The 20 July 2000 edition of Astrophysical Journal Letters published research of Gibor Basri chronicling the first sighting of a flare from a failed star or brown dwarf Using the Chandra X-ray Observatory a team of scientists from the University of California at Berkeley had spotted the brown dwarf and its bright x-ray flare Scientists believed that examining the x-ray flare would help them better understand dying stars and the explosive activity and magnetic fields of low-mass stars Early analyses indicated that the brown dwarfrsquos x-ray flare was approximately 1 billion times more powerful than the x-ray flares emitted from the planet Jupiter Scientists reacted to news of the discovery with excitement and surprise Robert E Rutledge of California Institute of Technology stated that he and his colleagues were ldquoshockedrdquo clarifying ldquowe did not expect to see flaring from such a lightweight object This is really the mouse that roaredrdquo The task of spotting an x-ray flare had been difficult because the brown dwarf emitted the flares only periodically However the intermittent flares made the successful capture of an image all the more significant The observation of the brown dwarfrsquos occasional release of x-ray flares confirmed the theory that brown dwarfs only release energy when they heat to temperatures above 4500degF (2500degC)952

24 July Cape Canaveral Florida celebrated 50 years as a launch site Long before NASA had begun to use the site the U S Army had launched test rockets from the swampy land The ldquolirsquol Bumperrdquo was among the first according to Dick Jones a retired US Army master sergeant who had helped with the 1950 launches During its first 50 years the Army had launched about 3200 rockets and missiles from the site which would eventually become KSC953

26 July The Zvezda service module successfully docked at the ISS immediately increasing the size of the space station by 50 percent Through a series of rocket firings Zvezda had drawn steadily closer to the ISS during its two-week journey to its new home 220 miles (354 kilometers) from Earth Experts had deemed the successful launch and docking of the Russian component of the ISS vital to the long-term success of the collaborative venture The Russian-built Zvezda nearly identical to a core section of the Russian Mir space station was to provide living quarters for researchers on the station as well as vital electronic computer and communications systems Anticipating significant interest in the historic linkup NASA provided information on its Web site explaining how to view the space station as it traveled over Earth954

951 NASA ldquoNASA Satellite Technology To Monitor Motor Vehicle Pollutionrdquo news release 18 July 2000 952 Gibor Basri et al ldquoAn Effective Temperature Scale for Late M and L Dwarfs from Resonance Absorption Lines of Cs I and Rb Irdquo Astrophysical Journal Letters 538 no 1 (20 July 2000) 363minus385 NASA ldquoChandra Captures Flare from Brown Dwarfrdquo news release 00-103 11 July 2000 953 Eliot Kleinberg ldquo50 Years at the Cape Opening the Door to Spacerdquo Palm Beach Post (FL) 24 July 2000 Associated Press ldquoCape Canaveral A Half-Century of Launches Begin with Bumperrdquo 19 July 2000 954 Warren E Leary ldquoSpace Station Is Connected to Module from Russiardquo New York Times 26 July 2000 NASA ldquoNo Telescopes Needed NASA Web Sites Let Stargazers Track Impending Space Station lsquoNuptualsrsquordquo news release

274


28 July Nearly one year after the highly publicized failure of a probe to reach the surface of Mars NASA announced plans for at least one possibly two robotic rovers to explore Mars by 2003 The new design plan the outcome of an overhaul of NASArsquos Mars Program in the aftermath of the unsuccessful mission called for a rover larger than Mars Sojourner which had successfully navigated the Martian surface in 1997 NASA planned for the new probe to continue the search for water on the surface of the Red Planet955

AUGUST 2000

2 August Mitsuyuki Ueda of the Aeronautics and Space Development Division of Japanrsquos Science and Technology Agency announced that Japan had decided to freeze the development of an unpiloted space shuttle which was four years behind schedule because of problems in Japanrsquos shuttle program as well as in its H-2 rocket program Japan had originally conceived its planned 20-ton (18000-kilogram or 181-tonne) shuttle in the 1980s modeling it after the US Space Shuttle and designing it to conduct scientific experiments and to carry into space payloads of up to 3 tons (2700 kilograms or 27 tonnes) Technical and financial setbacks within Japanrsquos shuttle program contributed to the freeze In addition because the original plan had called for Japan to launch the space shuttle aboard a Japanese-designed H-2 rocket a launch failure of an H-2 rocket had influenced the decision to halt Japanrsquos shuttle program In the failed launch of November 1999 officials had to destroy the rocket in midair leading an advisory panel to suggest that Japanrsquos planned shuttle should launch from a reusable high-speed jet plane rather than atop a rocket956

Space Media Inc and S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia) prime contractor of the Russian service module of the International Space Station (ISS) announced a new multimedia partnership called Enermedia LLC Under the new partnership Space Media Inc would use the Russian Space Program archives to develop and provide multimedia which the Russian service module would broadcast on television and the Internet957

4 August New Skies Satellites NV selected Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems (LMCSS) to build a second geosynchronous satellite to provide high-speed Internet access and other multimedia communications to a large coverage area extending from the eastern Mediterranean and southern Africa to Australia Japan and Korea New Skies selected the LMCSS A2100

00-114 20 July 2000 NASA ldquoFirst Opportunity Tonight for Zvezda To Dock with International Space Stationrdquo news release N00-36 25 July 2000 955 Kathy Sawyer ldquoNASA Moves To Send Robot Rovers To Explore Mars Surfacerdquo Washington Post 28 July 2000 Peter N Spotts ldquoNew Rover To Look for Signs of Water on Marsrdquo Christian Science Monitor 31 July 2000 Tribune News Services ldquoNASA Unveils Plans for 2003 Mission to Marsrdquo 28 July 2000 956 Associated Press ldquoJapan Freezes Plans To Make Unmanned Space Shuttlerdquo 2 August 2000 957 SPACEHAB ldquoSpace Media Inc and RSC Energia Join Forces Forming New Multimedia Partnershiprdquo news release 2 August 2000 httpwwwspacehabcomnews200000_08_02htm (accessed 8 May 2008)

275


satellite because it was able to meet challenging demands for bandwidth power and in-orbit flexibility958

6 August A Russian Progress cargo spacecraft launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying fuel to the uninhabited ISS for use in adjusting the stationrsquos orbit The craft also carried scientific instruments linens and personal-hygiene supplies in preparation for the October arrival of the stationrsquos first permanent crew959

7 August NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had located a ldquosmall armada of lsquominishycometsrsquordquo the fragmented remains of the nucleus of the comet LINEAR When it had disappeared behind the Sun on 27 July 2000 astronomers initially thought that LINEAR had disintegrated entirely Upon losing sight of the cometrsquos core ground-based observers had suggested that the nucleus had disintegrated into a ldquopile of dustrdquo and consequently astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute had reprogrammed the HST to search for the nucleus The exceptional resolution and sensitivity of the HST had revealed the nuclei of a half-dozen mini-comets at a level of detail never before observed in a disintegrating comet Some astronomers had suggested that the fragments the HST revealed were the ldquoprimordial building blocks of the original nucleusrdquo If so studying them could help scientists understand how the comet had originally formed960

8 August NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin began an official visit to Morocco to discuss space cooperation He planned to meet with several Moroccan officials particularly in the fields of scientific research and advanced technology and to visit facilities in Morocco capable of launching Space Shuttles961

9 August A Starsem Soyuz-Fregat rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying into orbit for the European Space Agency (ESA) the final pair of Cluster II scientific satellites Rumba and Tango The launch was the 10th consecutive success for the French-Russian Starsem consortium The first pair of Cluster II satellites named Salsa and Samba had launched on 16 July 2000 Designed to determine the physical process of the interaction between the solar wind and Earthrsquos magnetosphere the missionrsquos main objective was to increase understanding of space weather viewed as ldquoan increasingly significant obstacle to satellite activityrdquo thereby improving scientistsrsquo forecasting abilities Each of the four spacecraft contained a collection of instruments for detecting plasma fields waves and particles The Cluster II mission designed to last for two years following an initial three-month period of instrument and system commissioning was an

958 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Awarded Contract To Build First Interactive Broadband Multimedia Spacecraft for New Skies Satellitesrdquo news release 4 August 2000 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_ releases2000LockheedMartinAwardedContractBuildFhtml (accessed 6 May 2008) 959 Orlando Sentinel (FL) ldquoShip with Supplies for Space Station Launchesrdquo 7 August 2000 960 NASA ldquoHubble Discovers Missing Pieces of Comet Linearrdquo news release 00-122 7 August 2000 httpwww nasagovhomehqnews200000-122txt (accessed 6 May 2008) 961 BBC ldquoMorocco NASA Official Visits for Talks on Space Cooperationrdquo RTM TV (Rabat Morocco) 9 August 2000

276


international effort of more than 200 scientists from Canada China the Czech Republic ESA member states Hungary India Israel Japan Russia and the United States The original Cluster mission had ended during its inaugural launch in 1996 when a malfunction had caused the explosion of Arianespace Incrsquos Ariane 5 rocket962

10 August NASArsquos Associate Administrator for Space Science Edward J Weiler announced that NASA had decided to send two large scientific rovers to Mars in 2003 rather than a single craft The new plan called for the two craft to launch within weeks of each other reaching Mars in January 2004 after their respective seven and one-half-month-long journeys The two 300-pound (136shykilogram) rovers exact duplicates of each other and similar to the highly successful Sojourner rover of 1997 would head to different locations on Mars Mars Program Director G Scott Hubbard explained that NASA had undertaken an extensive study of the two-rover option weighing the excellent launch opportunity in 2003 against resource requirements and schedule constraints The study teams concluded that it would be possible to successfully develop and launch identical packages and that the new plan would not only double NASArsquos scientific return but also add resiliency and robustness to the Mars exploration program Although NASA had yet to select the two landing sites Mars Program Scientist James B Garvin suggested that possible locations included those with evidence of the existence of water in the past Steven W Squyres of Cornell University Principal Investigator for the roversrsquo Athena science package explained that the goal of each rover would be to learn about ancient water and climate conditions on Mars Each craft would operate as a robotic field geologist reading the geological record at its landing site to discover what conditions had formed the local rocks and soils963

14 August The Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000) officially commenced in South Africarsquos Northern Province with the gathering of scientists from 14 nations and six South African universities NASA alongside the University of Witwatersrand led SAFARI 2000 their goal to ldquodetermine how the regionrsquos natural ecosystems and human land use affect air quality and atmospheric conditionsrdquo The initiative would use specially equipped planes to make four scientific flights each week over a six-week period through September 2000 A modern ER-2 version of the U-2 spy plane would fly directly under the Terra satellite as it passed over various regions of southern Africa to verify the satellitersquos data Three other aircraft would also fly with the ER-2 ldquolike a stack of pancakesrdquo with the ER-2 flying at about 65000 feet (19800 meters) to conduct remote sensing a Convair 580 aircraft collecting air and gas samples just below the ERshy2 and two Aerocommander 690A aircraft conducting similar tests at between 5000 and 12000 feet (1500 and 3700 meters)964

16 August

962 European Space Agency ldquoLift Off for Second Pair of Cluster II Spacecraftrdquo news release 52-2000 httpwww esaintesaCPPr_52_2000_p_ENhtml (accessed 8 May 2008) Space Business News ldquoSoyuz Launches Second Pair of Cluster Probes Igniting Science Mission Tenth Successful Launch in 18 Monthsrdquo 16 August 2000 963 NASA ldquoNASA Plans To Send Rover Twins to Mars in 2003rdquo news release 00-124 10 August 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-124txt (accessed 7 May 2008) 964 Justin Arenstein for Africa News Service ldquoAfricarsquos Biggest Science Experiment Kicks Offrdquo 14 August 2000 Africa News Service ldquoNASA Project Off to a Flying Startrdquo 14 August 2000

277


Emergency rescue personnel from Canada Russia and the United States participated in training exercises near St Petersburg in Russia where they practiced maneuvers for rescuing astronauts returning to Earth from the ISS The rescuers practiced searching in water and on land for a module carrying three astronauts as well as practicing first-aid techniques965

NASA announced that its Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) had detected water vapor throughout interstellar space However in the very coldest areas where temperatures are only 30deg above absolute zero the satellite had detected far less water vapor than most theories had predicted In those areas SWAS measurements had indicated water vapor concentrations of only a few parts per billion Ronald L Snell of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst remarked that the finding presented a ldquoreal puzzle to our understanding of the chemistry of interstellar cloudsrdquo In warmer regions such as those within star-producing gas clouds SWAS had measured water concentrations as much as 10000 times greater than in the coldest regions The new results were the product of 18 months of observations using the compact radio observatory launched in 1998 on a mission to ldquostudy the composition of interstellar gas clouds and their collapse to form new starsrdquo966

17 August Robert R Gilruth ldquoan aerospace scientist engineer and a pioneer of the American space program during the glory days of Mercury Gemini and Apollordquo died at the age of 86 Gilruth had specialized in flight research and in 1945 he had organized an engineering team to study experimental rocket-powered aircraft leading to the establishment of the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division and the creation of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronauticsrsquos Wallops Island launching range In 1952 Gilruth had become Assistant Director of the Langley Laboratory investigating high-temperature structures and dynamics loads and conducting hypersonic aerodynamics research at Wallops Island His focus shifted to spacecraft in 1957 after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik When NASA began in 1958 Gilruth had become Director of the Space Task Group at Langley ultimately devising all the basic principles of Project Mercury In 1961 Gilruth had become Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center later Johnson Space Center (JSC) where he directed 25 human spaceflights over the course of 10 years George M Low Director of the Apollo Lunar Landing Program once remarked in an interview that the Mercury Gemini and Apollo programs would never have existed without Robert Gilruth NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin commented ldquohis courage to explore the unknown his insistence on following strict scientific procedures and his technical expertise directly contributed to the ultimate success of the American manned space program and the landing of a man on the moonrdquo967

23 August Russian space officials announced a decision to alter plans for the Enterprise module of the ISS which the company RSC Energia was building in conjunction with the US company SPACEHAB In the original plans the module had been noncommercial providing docking and

965 Associated Press ldquoRussian US Rescuers Practice Space Rescuerdquo 16 August 2000 966 NASA ldquoCosmic Gas Clouds Yield Puzzling Concentrations of Waterrdquo news release 00-126 16 August 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-126txt (accessed 6 May 2008) 967 NASA ldquoDr Robert Gilruth an Architect of Manned Space Flight Diesrdquo news release 00-127 17 August 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-127txt (accessed 6 May 2008)

278


cargo space but in an effort to increase revenue RSC Energia had revised the plans to allow the module to hold multimedia equipment for various business projects968

Lockheed Martin Systems Integration announced that the US Navy had selected the company to build seven SH-60R Multi-Mission Helicopters under the first SH-60R low-rate initial production (LRIP) contract moving Lockheed Martin from development and testing to the production phase of the SH-60R program The contract required Lockheed Martin to integrate the flight avionics systems mission avionics systems and stores and defense systems969

NASA announced the results of the most complete HST census of brown dwarfs finding that the ldquoodd and elusive objects also tend to be lonersrdquo Joan Najita of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Arizona explained that the properties of brown dwarfs ldquoreveal new and unique insights into how stars and planets formrdquo because they ldquobridge the gap between stars and planetsrdquo The stellar objects are too low in mass to burn hydrogen yet are more massive than planets despite being 15 to 80 times more massive than Jupiter brown dwarfs are difficult to detect because the light they emit is very faint The HST census had found more low-mass than high-mass brown dwarfs as is the case with stars and the isolated brown dwarfs appeared to represent the low-mass counterparts of the more massive classes of stars In carrying out the census scientists had used the HSTrsquos infrared vision to measure the brightness and temperature of stars in the cluster IC 348 in the constellation Perseus Najita and colleagues had used the telescopersquos NICMOS camera developing a new technique to distinguish brown dwarfs from ldquothe clutter of background starsrdquo The new procedure had measured the ldquostrength of an infrared water-absorption band in the atmospheres of the starsrdquo a sensitive measure of each starrsquos temperature solving several problems simultaneously The procedure had enabled the scientists to distinguish the brown dwarfs from background stars and to measure the masses of the brown dwarfs without needing to assume their ages thereby greatly improving estimates of mass970

24 August NASA awarded four small businesses 90-day contracts to develop concepts and requirements for providing access to the ISS on emerging launch systems The contractsrsquo purpose was to identify potential backup capability and to augment the stationrsquos primary resupply vehicles the US Space Shuttle the Russian Progress the ESArsquos Automated Transfer Vehicle and the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle NASA awarded Andrews Space and Technology US$195000 Microcosm US$198000 HMX Ltd US$245000 and Kistler Aerospace Corporation US$264000 to develop concepts determine requirements of launch services and provide suggestions on specific development risk-reduction activities which NASA would need to perform NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center would manage the study contracts under the Alternate Access Project of the Space Launch Initiative971

968 Associated Press ldquoRussia Seeks Space Station Revenuerdquo 23 August 2000 969 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Awarded First SH-60R Avionics Production Contractrdquo news release 23 August 2000 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases2000LockheedMartinAwardedFirstSH60R Aviohtml (accessed 6 May 2008) 970 NASA ldquoHubble Gets Head Count of Elusive Brown Dwarf Starsrdquo news release 00-130 23 August 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-130txt (accessed 6 May 2008) 971 NASA ldquoSmall Companies To Study Potential Use of Emerging Launch Services for Alternative Access to Space Stationrdquo news release C00-g 24 August 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-gtxt (accessed 6 May 2008)

279


25 August Margaret G Kivelson and four coauthors from the University of California at Los Angeles published in the journal Science the strongest evidence to date that Jupiterrsquos moon Europa contains a salty liquid ocean beneath its surface The team had used data from the Galileo probersquos magnetometer to study Europarsquos magnetic compass finding that ldquothe presence of a layer of electrically conducting liquid such as saltwaterrdquo best explained the behavior of the moonrsquos magnetic compass Kivelson explained that the team had inferred that the conductor must be a liquid ocean since ice is not a good conductor of electricity However Torrence V Johnson of NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) remarked that the magnetometer data by itself was insufficient to conclude the presence of a liquid ocean Johnson explained that scientists needed several further steps of inference such as precise measurements of gravity and altitude indicating the effects of tides972

27 August In the second on-orbit failure of Hughes Electronic Corporationrsquos HS601-model satellite the Spacecraft Control Processor (SCP) of Mexicorsquos Solidaridad I communications satellite malfunctioned disrupting television radio and pager services The first incident had occurred on the Galaxy IV satellite causing similar communications disruptions in the United States during 1998 In the current malfunction operators in Iztapalapa and Hermosillo received a series of alarms indicating that the only functioning SCP on board the Satmex-owned craft had turned itself off The satellite had two SCPs on board and needed only one to carry out its communications relay properly but Solidaridad I already was running on its backup SCP having lost its first processor a year ago Engineers suspected that the cause of the incident was the growth of a tiny crystalline structure that leads to electrical shorts Hughes investigators had identified this type of malfunction in their satellites containing tin-plated relay switches and therefore had begun to use nickel-plated switches in new satellites to prevent future occurrences of such electrical shorts However Solidaridad I designed for 14 years of service in space had launched in 1993 before the conversion to nickel-plated switches The Solidaridad series comprising two satellites provided service to all of Mexico also extending to the southwestern United States the Caribbean and Central and South America The malfunction led to the loss of educational television programming in 12000 schools in Mexico mostly in remote rural areas where some students rely entirely on televised courses Satmex was transferring Solidaridad I users to the three other satellites in its fleet973

28 August A Russian Proton-K rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying into orbit the Russian Ministry of Defensersquos Raduga-1-5 spacecraft a military communications satellite with the alternate names Globus-1 and Cosmos 2372 Although the Globus-1 was a classified program news sources reported that the craft would use a geostationary orbit to serve

972 NASA ldquoGalileo Evidence Points to Possible Water World Under Europarsquos Icy Crustrdquo news release 00-131 25 August 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-131txt (accessed 6 May 2008) Margaret Kivelson et al ldquoGalileo Magnetometer Measurements A Stronger Case for a Subsurface Ocean at Europardquo Science 289 no 5483 (25 August 2000) 1340ndash1343 973 Justin Ray ldquoSatellite Failure Causes Communications Blackoutrdquo Spaceflight Now 29 August 2000

280


as a relay link for Russian military forces At the time of the launch many Raduga craft remained in orbit but only five were operational974

30 August NASArsquos JPL named Thomas C Duxbury Project Manager for JPLrsquos Stardust Mission launched in February 1999 to collect a sample from Comet Wild-2 and return it to Earth Duxbury who had served as the Missionrsquos Acting Project Manager for the past year replaced Kenneth Atkins who had been heading a program to develop leadership for JPLrsquos projects Duxbury had joined the Stardust project in 1996 as Mission Manager responsible for navigation mission design the ground-data system science-data management and mission operations Before working on the Stardust project Duxbury had served on planetary mission teams including several Mariner missions the Mars Viking mission Pioneer 10 and 11 to Jupiter and Saturn Voyager 1 and 2 to the outer planets the Soviet Phobos Mission to Mars the Mars Observer Mission and the Clementine Mission to study the Moon Concurrent with his position as Stardust Project Manager Duxbury planned to continue to serve as a member of the science teams for Mars Global Surveyorrsquos laser altimeter and for the ESArsquos Mars Express orbiter and lander as well as continuing as lead scientist for geodesy and cartography in the Mars Exploration Office975

The US General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report discussing workforce and safety issues of NASArsquos Space Shuttle Program The report assessed the impact of workforce reductions on the Shuttle program the challenges that NASA would face as it addressed its workforce issues and the status of planned safety and supportability upgrades to the Space Shuttle GAO identified 26 technical skills needed at JSC in Houston Texas as well as at other facilities in Florida Alabama and Mississippi In addition GAO found that the decrease from 3000 to 1800 federal employees in the Shuttle program workforce since 1995 had placed NASA at a ldquocritical juncturerdquo The Shuttle launch rate had dropped from eight launches in 1997 to three in 1999 a trend on the cusp of reversing itself in the aftermath of the July 1999 launch of Russiarsquos Zvezda module Moreover GAO reported signs of overwork and stress among NASA staff Worker demographics⎯twice as many workers over age 60 as under age 30⎯had compounded the problem of a declining workforce NASA officials welcomed the report although the results reflected ldquoa much harsher assessment of [S]huttle safety issues [than the assessment] prepared by NASA itself in response to an electrical short that accompanied the July 1999 launching of the [S]huttle Columbiardquo GAO also reported that NASA had terminated downsizing plans in December 1999 and had initiated efforts to begin hiring new staff Although it was developing safety and supportability upgrades which it would implement over the next five years NASA still faced programmatic and technical challenges such as a demanding schedule and undefined design and workforce requirements976

974 Justin Ray ldquoProton Rocket Lofts Russian Military Satelliterdquo Spaceflight Now 28 August 2000 Spacewarn Bulletin no 562 1 September 2000 httpnssdcgsfcnasagovspacewarnspx562html (accessed 6 August 2008) 975 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoDuxbury Named Project Manager of Stardust Missionrdquo news release 2000shy084 30 August 2000 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases2000duxburyhtml (accessed 6 May 2008) 976 U S General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Shuttle Human Capital and Safety Upgrade Challenges Require Continued Attentionrdquo (report no GAONSIADGGD-00-186 Washington DC August 2000) httpwwwgaogov archive2000n200186pdf (accessed 9 May 2008) Mark Carreau ldquoUndersized Work Force Puts NASA at lsquoCritical Juncturersquordquo Houston Chronicle 31 August 2000

281


SEPTEMBER 2000

5 September A Sirius-2 communications satellite launched aboard a Russian Proton-K rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan The launch marked the second success for the Sirius Company which planned to broadcast digital radio to the United States Sirius had placed its first satellite in orbit on 1 July 2000 scheduling a third launch for November 2000977

6 September Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) selected Space Systems and Applications Inc of Lanham Maryland to provide engineering science and technology support for NASArsquos Space and Earth Science Directorates The value of the cost-plus-award-fee contract was US$2045 million over a period of five years Under the contract NASA required Space Systems and Applications to provide research and information technology services including scientific data analysis modeling and simulation of physical processes development of flight-project data systems and large-scale data management archival and delivery systems and systems analysis and programming These services would support a broad range of scientific disciplines⎯astronomy and astrophysics climatology and atmospheric science geodynamics land processes oceanography planetary studies solar and space plasma physics and solid earth geographics978

7 September NASA announced that on 3 September 2000 the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) aboard NASArsquos Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) satellite had detected an 11 million-square-mile (285 million-square-kilometer) ozone-depletion area⎯surpassing the ozone holersquos record of 105 million square miles (272 million square kilometers) set on 19 September 1998 Scientists investigating the extent of the ozone-depletion area expressed their surprise suggesting that early-spring conditions and an ldquoextremely intense Antarctic vortexrdquo⎯an upper-altitude stratospheric air current that moves around the continent⎯might partly explain the record-setting size Jack A Kaye of the Office of Earth Sciences Research Director at NASA Headquarters remarked that although scientists expect variations in the size of the ozone hole from one year to the next they plan to observe the evolution of the ozone-depletion area in the coming months to compare it with previous years Manager of NASArsquos Upper Atmosphere Research Program Michael J Kurylo suggested that the new data reinforced concerns about the fragile nature of the ozone layer indicating that although international agreements had curbed the production of ozone-destroying gases concentrations of those gases in the stratosphere were just reaching their peak levels Therefore he warned that it would be decades before the depletion area in the ozone layer would no longer occur annually Associate Administrator for Earth Science Enterprise Ghassem R Asrar commented that such discoveries demonstrated the value of long-term observations979

8 September

977 Reuters ldquoKazakhstan Russia Launches US Satellite from Kazakhstanrdquo 5 September 2000 978 NASA ldquoContract for Goddard Space Center Support Awardedrdquo news release C00-j 6 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-jtxt (accessed 25 April 2008) 979 NASA ldquoLargest-Ever Ozone Hole Observed over Antarcticardquo news release 00-137 7 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-137txt (accessed 25 April 2008)

282


Space Shuttle Atlantis Mission STS-106 launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida to prepare the International Space Station (ISS) for the arrival of its first crew The missionrsquos crew comprised Commander Terrence W Wilcutt Pilot Scott D Altman and Mission Specialists Daniel C Burbank Edward T Lu Yuri I Malenchenko Richard A Mastracchio and Boris V Morukov The purpose of STS-106 also known as ISS Flight 2A2b was to connect power data and communications cables to the Zvezda service module as well as to deliver supplies and to perform maintenance Although NASA officials had expressed concern that STS-106 might encounter a weather delay the approaching storm had stalled offshore so the Shuttle program experienced its first punctual launch since John H Glenn Jrrsquos historic flight in October 1998980

10 September Astronaut Edward T Lu and cosmonaut Yuri I Malenchenko conducted a spacewalk outside the ISS connecting nine power data and communications cables between the Russian-built Zvezda and Zarya modules Lu and Malenchenko also assembled and installed a 6-foot-long (18-metershylong) magnetometer boom on the Zvezda module to serve as a compass showing the relation of the ISS to Earth981

12 September NASA announced that scientists using the Chandra X-ray Observatory had confirmed the existence of ldquomiddleweightrdquo black holes Several groups of scientists used Chandra to focus on a mid-mass black hole located 600 light-years from the center of galaxy M82 Previous x-ray data from the German-US ROSAT (Roumlntgensatellite) and the Japan-US ASCA (Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics) had suggested the existence of a mid-mass black hole in M82 Scientists compared Chandrarsquos new high-resolution images with optical radio and infrared maps to determine that a single bright source was emitting most of the x-rays The scientists continued to observe M82 over an eight-month period noting that the intensity of the x-rays rose and fell every 600 seconds Philip Kaaret of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics explained that this behavior was similar to black holes swallowing gas from a nearby star or cloud Martin Ward of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom remarked that the findings opened ldquoa whole new field of researchrdquo982

13 September Astronaut Edward T Lu and cosmonaut Yuri I Malenchenko installed three new batteries in the Russian service module Zvezda which had launched with only five of its eight batteries to reduce its launch weight Meanwhile astronaut Daniel C Burbank and cosmonaut Boris V Morukov installed one of six batteries on the Russian-built control module Zarya Burbank and Morukov needed a hammer and chisel to remove four small nut plates which were obstructing a

980 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoAtlantis Thunders into Orbit on Space Station Missionrdquo 8 September 2000 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-106 International Space Station Flight 2A2brdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-106html (accessed 30 October 2008) 981 NASA ldquoMission Archives STS-106rdquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissionsarchivessts-106html (accessed 30 April 2008) NASA ldquoSTS-106 Extravehicular Activitiesrdquo httpspaceflightnasagovshuttle archivessts-106evaindexhtml (accessed 2 May 2008) 982 NASA ldquoChandra Clinches Case for Unexpected Black Hole Discoveryrdquo news release 00-140 12 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-140txt (accessed 25 April 2008)

283


pair of bolts the astronauts needed to loosen the bolts so that they could replace a voltage converter983

14 September NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin and H Fisk Johnson President of the Wisconsin-based private venture-capital company Fisk Ventures Inc (FVI) signed an agreement to ldquoexplore a new frontier in biotechnologyrdquo Johnson had approached NASA regarding its efforts to commercialize space activities suggesting a partnership NASA and FVI agreed to use NASArsquos bioreactor to develop commercial medical products The bioreactor technology creates a near-weightless environment enabling cells to grow three-dimensionally When raised in a traditional Petri dish growing cells are flat FVI had formed a joint venture with In Vitro Technologies Inc called StelSys LLC to focus on commercializing microgravity research in areas related to biological systems StelSys paid NASA a US$100000 licensing fee and a royalty of 5 percent of the companyrsquos profits capped at US$2 million for the rights to 13 patents for the bioreactor technology for five years NASA planned to use the bioreactor on the ISS and StelSys intended to use it to research infectious diseases and to develop a liver-assist device for patients in need of transplant surgery Goldin remarked that the agreement was ldquoa symbol of the success that can be achieved when government private industry and academia work together on the exploration of new frontiers for scientific technological and economic growthrdquo984

A GE-7 satellite built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems for GE American Communications (GE Americom) launched from Korou French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket The C-band satellite supplemented GE Americomrsquos fleet of 12 satellites servicing the Americas replacing the GE SATCOM C1 craft A member of the A2100 family of satellites the GE-7 joined four others⎯the GE-1 GE-2 GE-3 and GE-4⎯to provide distribution of cable broadcast television and radio business television and broadband data distribution across the contiguous United States Mexico the Caribbean and South America The GE-7 would provide ldquoservice to regional and national customers in-orbit protection for many current cable and radio customers plus critical telecommunications services delivered by ATampT Alascomrdquo985

NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science Edward J Weiler appeared before the US House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics to address the future of NASArsquos space science programs Weiler discussed NASArsquos problems in the previous year such as the loss of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander explaining that although NASA was developing a response to those losses it would need more funding if it were to prevent similar failures in the future House Subcommittee Chairperson Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) indicated that President William J Clinton had proposed increasing the space science budget by US$200 million over

983 NASA ldquoSTS-106rdquo C Bryson Hull for Associated Press ldquoAstronauts Installing Fresh Batteries in Space Stationrdquo 13 September 2000984 NASA ldquoLandmark Commercial Agreement Gives Biotechnology Research a New Dimensionrdquo news release 00shy143 14 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-143txt (accessed 25 April 2008) Laura Heinauer ldquoNASA Signs First Major Contract for Private Biotech Developmentrdquo Wall Street Journal 14 September 2000 985 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin-Built GE-7 Satellite Successfully Launched from Kourou French Guiana Launch Siterdquo news release 14 September 2000 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases2000Lock heedMartinBuiltGE7SatelliteSucchtml (accessed 25 April 2008)

284


each of the following four years NASArsquos budget reauthorization bill for FY 2001 added an additional US$19 million in funding for space science programs986

20 September Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida before dawn the 15th nighttime landing in the Shuttle programrsquos history Among the tasks that the crew had completed during the mission were delivering 3 tons (2700 kilograms or 27 tonnes) of supplies for the first permanent crew⎯including toiletries Russian and American meals medical kits and camera equipment⎯and installing the stationrsquos toilet an oxygen generator a treadmill and power and television cables NASA officials had decided to extend the mission an extra day to allow the crew more time to accomplish its work inside the space station N Wayne Hale STS-106 Flight Director explained that the mission had begun with 52 items on its list of tasks to accomplish but the number had increased to 74 different tasks large and small on board the ISS The only malfunction during the mission had been that of a newly installed battery which Russian Mission Control had ordered disconnected when it failed to charge properly987

21 September NASA selected 28 of 119 grant proposals totaling US$10 million over four years to conduct microgravity combustion research NASArsquos Office of Life and Microgravity Science and Applications which was sponsoring the grants would provide the researchers with access to its microgravity research facilities including drop tubes drop towers aircraft-flying parabolic trajectories and sounding rockets Twenty-six of the grants were for ground-based research and two were for flight-definition efforts four grants continued NASA-funded work but the remaining 24 entailed new research efforts988

Russian police announced that cosmonaut German S Titov the Soviet Unionrsquos second man in space and the first person to spend more than one day in orbit had been found dead at home at the age of 65 Although the police had not reported an official cause of death the media speculated that the cause was either carbon monoxide poisoning or a heart attack Titov had spent 25 hours and 18 minutes aboard the tiny Soviet Vostok-2 spacecraft on 6 and 7 August 1961 Fellow Soviet Yuri Gagarin had made the first flight on Vostok-1 on 12 April flying for less than 2 hours and US astronaut Alan B Shepard Jr had followed Gagarinrsquos mission with a 15-minute suborbital flight on 5 May 1961 Titov worked on the Buran program during the 1980s attempting to create a Russian space shuttle but the Soviet Union abandoned the project after the Russian shuttle had made one unpiloted flight After the fall of the Soviet Union Titov had entered politics representing the Communist Party on the defense committee of the State Duma lower house989

Following a 24-hour delay caused by a computer anomaly NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) successfully launched the Lockheed Martinndashbuilt NOAAshy

986 Space Business News ldquoMoney Management Are Key To Avoiding NASA Failures House Panel Hearsrdquo 27 September 2000 987 Dow Jones Newswire ldquoSpace Shuttle Atlantis Touches Down Successfullyrdquo 20 September 2000 988 NASA ldquoNASA Announces Research Grants in Microgravity Combustion Sciencerdquo news release 00-144 21 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-144txt (accessed 25 April 2008) 989 Reuters ldquoRussiarsquos 2nd Cosmonaut German Titov Dies in Saunardquo 21 September 2000

285


L spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Titan II rocket Ground controllers confirmed that the craft had deployed its solar array and verified a power-positive condition NASA and NOAA had designed the satellite the second in a series of five polar-orbiting spacecraft to collect meteorological data and to transmit the information to users worldwide NOAArsquos National Weather Service planned to use the craftrsquos data for long-range weather and climate forecasts Although NASA had managed the project of building and launching the satellite it intended to transfer operational control to NOAA 10 days following the launch990

NASA released time-lapse movies created from images produced by the Hubble Space Telescope showing ldquospectacular outbursts from young starsrdquo changing ldquodramatically over a period of just weeks or monthsrdquo NASA had combined individual images of young star systems XZ Tauri and HH 30 in the Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud captured over several years to create the time-lapse movies Documenting the activity of the early stages of starsrsquo lives the movies demonstrated that images ldquotaken of the universe today wonrsquot necessarily look the same as those snapped a few months from nowrdquo991

26 September Administrator Daniel S Goldin presented awards to three minority contractors at NASArsquos annual Minority Business and Advocates Awards Ceremony RS Information Services (RSIS) based in McLean Virginia won Minority Contractor of the Year Rigging and Welding Specialists Inc a Native Americanndashowned business won Minority Subcontractor of the Year and Pace and Waite Inc won Women-Owned Business of the Year In addition NASA recognized advocates for innovative approaches to using minority- and women-owned businesses awarding NASArsquos Exceptional Achievement Medal to Kenneth Martindale and Rodney J Etchberger of Johnson Space Center and to Shantaram S Pai of Glenn Research Center Furthermore NASA recognized five individuals for outstanding achievements and three NASA field centers for meeting or exceeding all socioeconomic business goals for FY 1999992

NASA named award-winning broadcast journalist Bob Jacobs as Chief of News and Information at NASA Headquarters Before joining NASA Jacobs had served for four years as Projects Manager for the Washington-based Broadcast Technology Division of the Associated Press where he helped to develop and implement newsroom management technology Clients had included the British Broadcasting Corporation ESPN National Public Radio and CBS News Jacobs had won an Emmy award and other regional honors for excellence in journalism993

Sally K Ride the first female astronaut from the United States to travel into space resigned her position as President of Spacecom to concentrate on her education career She had worked with Spacecom founder Lou Dobbs former host of CNNrsquos Moneyline since the companyrsquos start-up

990 NOAA ldquoNOAA-L Weather Satellite Successfully Launchedrdquo news release 2000-069 21 September 2000 httpwwwpublicaffairsnoaagovreleases2000sep00noaa00069html (accessed 29 April 2008) Associated Press ldquoWeather Satellite Launched After Delayrdquo 21 September 2000 991 NASA ldquoHubble Movies Show the Changing Faces of Young Starsrdquo news release N00-044 21 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewsnote2edt2000n00-044txt (accessed 25 April 2008) 992 NASA ldquoNASA To Honor Minority Businessesrdquo news release 00-148 25 September 2000 httpwwwnasa govhomehqnews200000-148txt (accessed 25 April 2008) 993 NASA ldquoNews Chief Named at NASA Headquartersrdquo news release 00-150 26 September 2000 httpwww nasagovhomehqnews200000-150txt (accessed 25 April 2008)

286


in June 1999 and had been the companyrsquos president for the past year Ride would continue her leave of absence from the University of California at San Diego where she is a physics professor throughout the remainder of the fall academic term994

NASA announced that a team of Lockheed Martin scientists using NASArsquos Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) spacecraft to observe coronal loops⎯coils of hot electrified gas⎯believed they had located the source of the heating mechanism that makes the Sunrsquos corona 300 times hotter than its visible surface A thirty-year-old theory had assumed that the coronal loops heated evenly but the TRACE observations had indicated that most of the heating occurs at the base of the loops near the point from which they emerge and return to the solar surface The team had observed 41 loops extending from 2500 miles (4000 kilometers) to more than 180000 miles (290000 kilometers) from the solar surface and had found that although threads within shorter loops heat more evenly longer threads cool noticeably as they attain height The team had calculated the loopsrsquo energy levels and estimated that ldquoheating typically occurs in the first 6000 miles of a looprsquos lengthrdquo Richard Fisher head of the Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics at NASArsquos GSFC remarked that understanding how the coronal loops function could shed light on coronal-mass ejections (CMEs) CMEs can disrupt or destroy satellite components orbiting Earth and prompt surges in electrical transmission lines causing blackouts on Earth995

27 September Arianespace the France-based European satellite launch company announced that it had won a contract to launch three more satellites for INTELSAT the international satellite corporation based in Washington DC Arianespace already held a contract to launch three other satellites in the INTELSAT IX series INTELSAT had scheduled six of the seriesrsquo seven spacecraft for launch from mid-2001 through the end of 2002 on Ariane 4 or Ariane 5 launch vehicles from Europersquos spaceport in French Guiana California-based Space SystemsLoral was building the 47-tonne (4700-kilogram or 52-ton) satellites In 1965 INTELSAT had launched the worldrsquos first commercial communications satellite Early Bird996

Lockheed Martin announced that for the third time in four years the Air Traffic Control Association had awarded the company its Industry Award recognizing Lockheedrsquos outstanding achievement in and contribution to the science of air traffic control The award specifically recognized Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management for its worldwide support of air trafficndash control systems The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) the German Civil Aviation Authority and the United Kingdomrsquos National Air Traffic Services Ltd Had all nominated the company for the award997

994 Bloomberg News ldquoRide Leaves Spacecom Top Post⎯For 1st US Female Astronaut in Space Itrsquos Back to Educationrdquo 27 September 2000 995 NASA ldquoFountains of Fire Illuminate Solar Mysteryrdquo news release 00-146 26 September 2000 httpwww nasagovhomehqnews200000-146txt (accessed 25 April 2008) Peter N Spotts ldquoScientists Begin To Unravel a Stubborn Solar Mysteryrdquo Christian Science Monitor 27 September 2000 996 Reuters ldquoFrance Arianespace in Deal To Launch 3 INTELSAT Satellitesrdquo 27 September 2000 997 Lockheed Martin ldquoLockheed Martin Receives Prestigious Air Traffic Control Association Awardrdquo news release 27 September 2000 httpwwwlockheedmartincomnewspress_releases2000LockheedMartinReceivesPrestigious Aihtml (accessed 25 April 2008)

287


28 September NASArsquos Langley Research Center awarded contracts valued at US$18 million to two companies for operating airport-surface surveillance systems intended to prevent runway accidents a top safety priority of the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board The contracts required Sensis Corporation of Dewitt New York and Rannoch Corporation of Alexandria Virginia to operate the Airport Traffic Identification System (ATIDS) and the Dynamic Runway Occupancy Measurement Systems (DROMS) at Detroitrsquos Metropolitan Wayne International Airport for six months establishing and validating the systems in a ldquoliverdquo environment The contracts also required Sensis to deploy and evaluate DROMS at Memphis International Airport and to interface the system with the existing Sensis-operated ATIDS at that airport998

29 September NASA announced its agreement with Lockheed Martin on a plan for the X-33 space plane program The agreed plan included aluminum fuel tanks for hydrogen fuel a revised payment schedule and a target launch date in 2003 contingent on Lockheed Martinrsquos winning additional funding under the Space Launch Initiative for completing the project NASA had funded the project through March 2001 The restructured plan focused on ldquoproviding milestone paymentsrdquo to Lockheed Martinrsquos team following the completion of tests and the delivery of hardware and software systems this year The plan also gave greater emphasis to mission safety quality and mission success Arthur G Stephenson Director of NASArsquos Marshall Space Flight Center pointed out that despite setbacks the programrsquos successes had included the creation of technology applicable to the space program and to the commercial aircraft industry such as a revolutionary new rocket engine a robust reusable metallic thermal-protection system and software and sensors that automatically determine and predict failures and errors before they affect the flight999

NASA announced the restructuring of the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (OLSMA) part of the Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise (HEDS) OLSMA renamed the Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR) would become a separate enterprise focusing on scientific research working closely with HEDS to facilitate long-term exploration of space The OBPR would comprise five divisions the Physical Sciences Division the Fundamental Space Biology Division the Biomedical and Human Support Research Division the Division of Research Integration and the Division of Policy and Program Integration NASA named Kathie L Olsen as Acting Associate Administrator to return to her position as Chief Scientist after NASA had filled the position permanently1000

OCTOBER 2000

1 October

998 NASA ldquoContracts Awarded for Airport Surface Surveillance Systemsrdquo news release C00-m 28 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-mtxt (accessed 25 April 2008) 999 NASA ldquoNASA Lockheed Martin Agree on X-33 Planrdquo news release 00-157 29 September 2000 httpwww nasagovhomehqnews200000-157txt (accessed 25 April 2008) 1000 NASA ldquoNASA Creates New Enterprise Focusing on Biologyrdquo news release 00-158 29 September 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-158txt (accessed 25 April 2008)

288


New NASA research published in the 1 October issue of the American Meteorological Societyrsquos Journal of Climate warned that clouds might not help counteract climate-warming trends Anthony D Del Genio of NASArsquos Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City had analyzed observations of low clouds over land collected between 1994 and 1997 as part of the US Department of Energyrsquos Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program Del Genio had found that clouds are thinner when temperatures were higher a phenomenon occurring in any weather condition or season and at any time of day Some climate theories had predicted that high temperatures would cause thicker clouds because of an increase in water vapor but Del Genio explained that during warmer temperatures the bottoms of clouds rise and become thinner This occurs because clouds that form over a warm dry air mass must rise higher before becoming sufficiently saturated with water to form a cloud base Thinner clouds are less capable of reflecting sunlight back into space and are therefore unable to act as a ldquonatural sun shieldrdquo Del Geniorsquos findings corroborated long-term worldwide satellite observations published using the NASA-funded International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) database The ISCCP a global composite of cloud observations from international weather satellites began showing a link between cloud thinning and temperature in 19921001

International Launch Services (ILS) a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Khrunichev State Research and S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia launched a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan The Proton launch the fourth in the year for ILS successfully placed into orbit a United Statesndashbuilt GE-1A communications satellite serving customers in parts of Asia including China the Philippines and India1002

3 October Russian space experts agreed that the Mir space station was in fine condition to continue orbiting Earth and the Russian government extended the stationrsquos time in space indefinitely after the Netherlands-based MirCorp agreed to fund a new mission Russiarsquos council of space engineers known as the Council of Chief Designers authorized plans to launch a Progress cargo spacecraft in the middle of October to deliver fuel and equipment to Mir1003

5 October European Space Agency (ESA) engineers announced the discovery of a flaw in the European receiver on NASArsquos Cassini spacecraft prompting an inquiry into why engineers had not identified the problem before NASA had launched the craft and how the issue could be resolved before the craft reached its destination Cassinirsquos probe data relay subsystem (PDRS) lacked sufficient bandwidth to navigate the Doppler shift with the Huygens probe as the probe parachuted toward the surface of Saturnrsquos moon Titan Therefore the system would be unable to recover all of the data that Huygensrsquos six instruments would generate Cassini and Huygens launched on 15 October 1997 with Huygens scheduled to separate from Cassini on 6 November 2004 break through Titanrsquos atmosphere on 27 November 2004 and descend to the moonrsquos

1001 NASA ldquoRevised⎯NASA Scientist Predicts Less Climate Cooling from Cloudsrdquo news release 00-151 3 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-151txt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1002 Jim Banke ldquoProton Rocket Lifts American Satellite into Earth Orbitrdquo Spacecom 2 October 2000 httpwww spacecommissionlauncheslaunchesproton_launch_001001html (accessed 14 April 2008) 1003 MirCorp ldquoMirCorp Statement on the Mir Space Stationrsquos Futurerdquo news release 3 October 2000 Associated Press ldquoRussian Space Experts Determine Mir Fit To Continue Orbital Flightrdquo 3 October 2000

289


surface using a parachute system The mission plan called for Huygens to measure the composition and winds of Titanrsquos atmosphere and to collect images The probe would send the data via the S-band PDRS to Cassini which would then transmit the data to Earth However the ESA stated that the inadequate bandwidth of the PDRS meant that link margins would degrade because the Doppler shift on the data subcarrier would be outside the bandwidth of the receiver-phase lock loop leading to a potential loss in the link of 10dB over what engineers had assumed for the mission1004

6 October NASA announced the selection of Sverdrup Technology Inc to fulfill a contract providing engineering science and technical services at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) The two-year contract with three one-year priced options valued at US$300 million over five years would go into effect on 15 October1005

9 October The High Energy Transient Explorer Mission (HETE-2) launched aboard a Hybrid Pegasus expendable launch vehicle from Kwajalein missile-range facility on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean The Center for Space Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology headed the HETE-2 mission designed to detect and localize gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) using a set of instruments that would allow simultaneous observations of the GRBs The craft would compute locations of GRBs and immediately transmit the coordinates to ground-based observers HETEshy2 an international collaboration among the United States Japan France and Italy replaced the original HETE spacecraft which was lost following a rocket malfunction in November 19961006

11 October Space Shuttle Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral Florida on Mission STS-92 also known as ISS Assembly Flight 33A to carry out an 11-day construction mission requiring four scheduled spacewalks at the International Space Station (ISS) Discoveryrsquos crew⎯Commander Brian Duffy Pilot Pamela A Melroy and Mission Specialists Koichi Wakata Leroy Chiao Peter J K Wisoff Michael Lopez-Alegria and William S McArthur⎯was transporting a truss and a docking port to the station planning to install them before the arrival of the first scheduled ISS crew at the end of October

13 October Responding to a 25 January 2000 article in the New York Times alleging that grants in the midshy1990s had benefited the Russian civilian agency Biopreparat NASArsquos Office of Inspector General published a report stating that NASA had not followed the US Department of Statersquos guidelines for administering biotechnology grants to Russia thereby inadvertently funding germ-warfare laboratories The Russian government owned 51 percent of Biopreparat the organization

1004 Frank Morring Jr ldquoESA Sets Inquiry After Tests Reveal Flaw in Titan Probe Linkrdquo Aerospace Daily 6 October 2000 1005 NASA ldquoTennessee Technology Firm Selected for $300 Million Contractrdquo news release c00-n 6 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-ntxt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1006 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ldquoThe High Energy Transient Explorer Mission (HETE-2)rdquo httpimagine gsfcnasagovdocssats_n_datamissionshete2html (accessed 14 April 2008) NASA ldquoHETE-2 Flies in Search of Gamma-Ray Burstsrdquo news release 00-160 2 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-160txt (accessed 1 April 2008)

290


that had conducted most of the Soviet Unionrsquos biological warfare research since the 1970s At the time of the articlersquos publication Biopreparat was continuing to research pathogens that had been included in the Soviet biological warfare program The Inspector General found that ldquoalmost three-fourths of US$168 million in NASA grants intended for space biotechnology work found its way to lsquoinstitutions that had been affiliated with Russiarsquos biological warfare programrsquordquo Therefore the Inspector General asserted that NASA had not followed the Department of Statersquos guidelines requiring NASA to ldquoregularly visit and participate in the research it was funding at Russian institutes that had been part of the Soviet biological warfare programrdquo NASA agreed with the Inspector Generalrsquos sole recommendation to practice ldquoinvasive collaborationrdquo in the future when funding biotechnology research in countries with known or suspected biological weapons programs1007

Space Shuttle Discovery arrived at the ISS Shuttle Commander Brian Duffy successfully executed the rendezvous without the Shuttlersquos radar relying on a star-tracking system and on handheld lasers operated by his crew The Ku-band antenna had failed after launch disrupting the radar and television link The Shuttle docking was NASArsquos first conducted without radar1008

The ESA signed a four-year contract with two industry groups⎯Sarcom led by Spot Image of Toulouse France and the Emma consortium led by Eurimage of Rome⎯granting the two groups ldquopriority access to the Envisat radar remote-sensing satelliterdquo scheduled for launch in 2001 as well as imagery from the ERS-2 spacecraft already in orbit About the new business relationship a major policy shift for the ESA Acting Envisat Mission Manager Guumlnther Kohlhammer remarked that the ESA had realized that it needed to change so that it could develop new markets The contract gave commercial orders for the satellite images priority over scientific requests setting new limits on the type and number of users ESA would grant access to data without paying commercial prices1009

14 October Despite unexpected problems astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Discovery installed a 9-ton (8200-kilogram or 82-tonne) structural truss on the Unity module of the ISS completing one of the major objectives of the mission The Z1 truss held four mass gyroscopes and the stationrsquos main Ku-band and S-band communications antennas In addition the truss provided a temporary attachment point for a set of solar arrays scheduled to arrive during a December Shuttle mission The astronauts faced several obstacles during the installation process A short in the Shuttlersquos payload circuitry disabled the computerized camera system needed to orient the truss for attachment causing a 2frac12-hour delay However the astronauts were able to wire a backup computer into an alternate power source restoring power to the Space Vision System which NASA had programmed to ldquodetermine the trussrsquos precise location and orientation with respect to the station by measuring the locations of the targets on its surface as viewed from different

1007 NASA Office of Inspector General ldquoNASA Oversight of Russian Biotechnology Research 1994ndash1997rdquo (NASA report no G-00-07 Washington DC 13 October 2000) httpoignasagovoldinspections_assessmentsg-00-007pdf (accessed 8 April 2008) Frank Morring Jr ldquoNASA Seen Funding Russian Germ-Warfare Labs Through Lax Oversightrdquo Aerospace Daily 18 October 2000 1008 Associated Press ldquoBad Antenna Blacks Out Shuttlersquos Televisionrdquo Charleston Gazette (SC) 13 October 2000 New York Times ldquoAstronauts Rendezvous with Space Stationrdquo 14 October 2000 Los Angeles Times ldquoShuttle Discovery Docks Safely with Space Stationrdquo 14 October 2000 1009 Peter B de Selding ldquoESA Hands Radar Satellite Responsibility to Industryrdquo Space News 30 October 2000

291


payload bay camerasrdquo The astronauts had to delay their work again when the Space Vision System failed to generate reliable data during certain orbital lighting conditions requiring astronaut William S McArthur to recalibrate the system1010

15 October Astronauts Leroy Chiao and William S McArthur made a spacewalk outside the ISS to link electrical cables to the stationrsquos new truss and to deploy the main antenna The pair routed six power- and data-cables between the truss and the station as well as four backup cables Tests indicated that all connections worked The astronauts moved one of the trussrsquos two antennas to a temporary location out of the way of future construction work mounted the main antenna a 78shyinch-wide (2-meter-wide) dish to a 12-foot (37-meter) boom and extended the main antenna According to NASArsquos schedule the ISS crew would turn on the antenna during an April 2001 Shuttle mission1011

16 October NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin announced the appointment of Baruch S Blumberg 1976 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology and Medicine as Senior Advisor to the Administrator effective immediately While continuing in his position as Director of NASArsquos Astrobiology Institute Blumberg would also provide guidance to NASArsquos newly created Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR) an interdisciplinary effort combining research in biology physics chemistry and engineering Goldin also announced that NASA would begin a search headed by Blumberg and NASA Chief Scientist Kathie L Olsen to fill the position of Associate Administrator for the new OBPR and other key positions Olsen would serve as Acting Associate Administrator until NASA had filled the position1012

Three astronauts attached a new docking port to the ISS with two of the crew spacewalking and one operating Discoveryrsquos robotic arm from inside the Shuttle Astronauts Peter J K ldquoJeffrdquo Wisoff and Michael Lopez-Alegria assigned to work outside the ISS had difficulty loosening the latches securing the docking port inside Discoveryrsquos cargo bay However once they had freed it Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata lifted the 2700-pound (1200-kilogram) port using the Shuttlersquos robotic arm and positioned it on the space station When the port was within 1 foot (03 meters) of its position the astronauts outside gave Wakata ldquoinvaluablerdquo instructions necessary because the crew was working without the assistance of the camera at the end of the robotic arm The camera had been out of commission since the short circuit on 14 October1013

17 October Russia launched a Progress supply spacecraft to deliver fuel to the uninhabited Mir space station which was slipping from orbit Increased solar flare activity had expanded the atmosphere creating friction between Mir and the thin gases above Earth and causing the station to descend

1010 William Harwood ldquoStructural Truss Added to Spine of Space Station Shuttle Astronauts Overcome Camera Systemrsquos Short Circuitrdquo Washington Post 16 October 2000 1011 Michael Cabbage ldquoDiscovery Spacewalk Goes Off Without a Hitch Crew Members Finished a Six-Hour Task that Included Hooking Up a Truss and an Antennardquo Orlando Sentinel (FL) 16 October 2000 1012 NASA ldquoNobel Prize Laureate Appointed as Senior NASA Advisorrdquo news release 00-164 16 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-164txt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1013 Marcia Dunn for the Associated Press ldquoDocking Port Nudged Carefully into Placerdquo Sun-Sentinel (Ft Lauderdale FL) 17 October 2000

292


steadily ever since its last crew had returned to Earth in June after a 73-day mission The fuel would enable the station to achieve a higher orbit preventing it from falling into thicker layers of the atmosphere and burning up Some Russian politicians had called for disposal of the station and US space officials had urged the Russian government to dedicate its ldquoscarce space fundsrdquo to the ISS However MirCorp a private company based in the Netherlands had leased time on Mir and agreed to fund the Progress launch thereby saving the station1014

18 October NASA Administrator Daniel S Goldin recognized members of the Space Shuttlersquos ice and debris inspection team for their work on 10 October leading to the discovery of a stray 4-inch (10shycentimeter) pin near the Shuttlersquos external fuel tank hours before the scheduled launch of STSshy92 In response to the find NASA had delayed the launch for 24 hours to allow the team to retrieve the pin thereby preventing the damage that would have ensued if the pin had been sucked into the Shuttlersquos thermal protection system or into a main engine Goldin awarded employees Gregory N Katnik and Jorge E Rivera NASArsquos Exceptional Achievement Medal an honor recognizing significant contributions to the mission of NASA through substantial and significant improvements in operations efficiency service financial savings science or technology United Space Alliance employees Michael Barber John B Blue and Thomas F Ford received NASArsquos Public Service Medal an award given to individuals who are not government employees but make exceptional contributions to NASArsquos mission1015

In preparation for the December arrival of a pair of solar panels astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Peter J K ldquoJeffrdquo Wisoff cleaned up the top of the newly installed truss on the ISS The two men also deployed a tray on the truss which would hold the connections between the stationrsquos central structure and the Destiny laboratory module built by the United States and scheduled for installation in January Next the spacewalkers tested ldquomini-jetpacksrdquo known as Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue or SAFER NASA intended the nitrogen-powered jetpacks for use only in emergencies such as rescuing an injured or incapacitated spacewalker With only limited fuel supplies in the jetpacks each of the astronautsrsquo moves had to be deliberate each test maneuver lasted approximately 3 minutes while the astronaut traveled a distance of about 50 feet (15 meters) The astronauts remained tethered to the Shuttlersquos robotic arm throughout the tests1016

19 October During their only full day inside the ISS Shuttle crew members spent their last day before heading back to Earth transferring supplies wiping down the stationrsquos walls with fungicide to prevent mold and mildew and testing four gyroscopes installed earlier in the mission The crew spun the gyroscopes briefly at 100 revolutions per minute and the gyroscopes functioned as expected1017

1014 Associated Press ldquoRussia Launches Progress Cargo Space Shiprdquo 17 October 2000 1015 NASA ldquoSpace Shuttle Inspection Team Rewarded for Its lsquoEagle Eyesrsquordquo news release 00-165 18 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-165txt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1016 C Bryson Hull for Associated Press ldquoDiscovery Astronauts Head Out for Final Day of Spacewalksrdquo 18 October 2000 Associated Press ldquoDiscoveryrsquos Crew Zips Around Bay on New Jetpacksrdquo USA Today 19 October 2000 1017 C Bryson Hull for Associated Press ldquoShuttle Station To Part Ways After Weeklong Construction Missionrdquo 20 October 2000

293


20 October SkyCorp signed a commercial Space Act agreement with NASA providing that SkyCorp deploy into orbit either from the Space Shuttle or from the ISS a satellite containing an Internet server NASA and SkyCorp planned to test the idea as a ldquoproof of conceptrdquo for a Low Earth Orbit 544 satellite constellation offering Internet access on a global scale SkyCorp chose to launch an Apache server on a small satellite containing an Apple 500 MHz Power Mac G4 The agreement with NASA outlined SkyCorprsquos novel idea of launching a partially assembled satellite aboard a Space Shuttle Astronauts would assemble the craft in space before tossing it from a Shuttle or ISS airlock into an independent orbit SkyCorp named its concept Gossamer Typically engineers assemble a satellite fully on Earth and it must withstand the stress of launch A satellite built according to the Gossamer concept would only need to retain structural integrity in microgravity greatly simplifying guidance navigation and control requirements1018

23 October Chairman and founder of Beal Aerospace Technologies Inc Andrew Beal announced his decision to cease all business operations effective immediately The company had sought to develop low-cost reliable commercial space launch systems and had ldquomade significant advances in low cost hydrogen peroxide propulsion systemsrdquo Beal expressed confidence that despite the companyrsquos cost overruns and schedule delays Beal Aerospace Technologies could have successfully developed its BA-2C rocket-launch system if it had remained in operation Beal outlined the risk factors that had been beyond the companyrsquos control and had led to the decision to cease operations 1) NASArsquos and the US governmentrsquos commitment to the subsidization of competing launch systems 2) federal laws mandating the companyrsquos ldquopotential liability for pre-existing environmental contamination at the only available Cape Canaveral launchpadsrdquo and 3) uncertainty about receiving approval from the US Department of State to launch from the companyrsquos launch facilities in Guyana Beal remarked that government subsidization of launch systems was the primary reason that the company had to choose either to become a government contractor like the Boeing Company and Lockheed Martin or to cease operations1019

24 October NASArsquos Langley Research Center selected Swales and Associates Inc to provide research and development engineering and support services under a contract valued at up to US$240 million over five years Specific work areas covered under the contract included full-spectrum aerodynamics gas dynamics fluid dynamics aerothermodynamics acoustics and aeroacoustics metallic and nonmetallic structures and materials and spaceborne and airborne systems1020

Space Shuttle Discovery landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California ending the 100th

mission of the Shuttle program Poor weather conditions had prevented the Shuttlersquos scheduled

1018 SkyCorp ldquoSkyCorp Announces Space Act Agreement with NASA To Fly First Internet Webserver in Spacerdquo news release 20 October 2000 Keith Cowing ldquoSkyCorp Signs Agreement with NASA To Fly the First Webserver in Space⎯and It Will Be a Mac G4rdquo SpaceRefcom 23 October 2000 1019 Beal Aerospace Technologies Inc ldquoStatement from Andrew Beal Regarding Cease of Operations by Beal Aerospacerdquo news release 23 October 2000 1020 NASA ldquoNASA Awards Support Services Contract to Maryland Firmrdquo news release C00-o 24 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-otxt (accessed 1 April 2008)

294


landing in Florida on 22 October Edwards had opened as a backup site on 23 October but wind and rainy weather had prevented a landing at either site until 24 October The landing was the first Shuttle landing at Edwards since poor weather had prevented a Shuttle landing in Florida in March 1996 In the early years of the program Shuttles had typically landed at Edwards Air Force Base but later both launches and landings became the functions of KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida1021

26 October NASA announced the findings of an investigation into the 16 June incident involving the Space Shuttlersquos main engine The team headed by Robert L Sackheim Assistant Director for Space Propulsion at NASArsquos MSFC had determined that 24 square inches (155 square centimeters) of tape had fallen into the Shuttle enginersquos fuel system and that nobody had noticed the tape before the enginersquos test firing The tapersquos location had caused the enginersquos temperature to increase rapidly beyond normal operating limits damaging some components of the enginersquos fuel pump According to Sackheim the engine controller had performed according to its design shutting down the engine 5 seconds into the planned 200-second test when it sensed a temperature exceeding safe limits Sackheimrsquos team had concluded ldquothe handling of accounting for and inspecting for loose materials used to process and rebuild engines during normal operations were inadequaterdquo The test had been a ldquotemperature marginrdquo demonstration undertaken as part of the developmental phase of a more robust Pratt amp Whitney Advanced Technology High Pressure Fuel Turbopump The engine had not been in flight configuration but had been a unit in a testing process aimed at validating the prototype enginersquos ability to operate at higher-thanshynormal temperatures1022

The Russian government earmarked funds to send two Progress cargo spacecraft to the Mir space station announcing that it would wait until February 2001 to make a final decision about the stationrsquos fate Earlier Deputy Prime Minister Ilya I Klebanov had explained that the decision the Russian government had been wavering about for more than a year rested on the availability of private funds to keep the station in orbit Executives from MirCorp had promised the Russian government that the company would raise between US$100 million and US$170 million by next year but Russian space officials were skeptical of MirCorprsquos ability to meet this commitment MirCorp had yet to pay the US$10 million it owed Russia for the 17 October launch of a Progress cargo spacecraft delivering fuel to Mir1023

NASA announced that it planned to implement a new Mars Exploration Program over the following two decades NASA planned six major missions during the next 10 years launching the Mars Odyssey orbiter mission in 2001 twin Mars Exploration Rovers in 2003 and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter⎯a powerful scientific orbiter⎯in 2005 Additional plans included the development and launch possibly as early as 2007 of a ldquolong-range long-duration mobile science laboratoryrdquo which would ldquopave the way for a future sample return missionrdquo NASA also

1021 Washington Times ldquoShuttle Lands at Edwards for First Time since 1996 Marks 100th Mission of US Programrdquo 25 October 2000 Matthew Fordahl for Associated Press ldquoDiscovery Lands in Californiardquo 25 October 2000 1022 NASA ldquoShuttle Main Engine Test Investigation Points to Fuel System Contaminationrdquo news release 00-170 26 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-170txt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1023 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoRussia Earmarks Funds for Mirrdquo 26 October 2000

295


proposed to create a new line of small missions called Scout missions involving airborne vehicles or small landers NASA would select designs for the Scout spacecraft from proposals submitted by the scientific community Besides sending additional scientific orbiters rovers and landers to Mars during the second decade of the program NASA announced its plans to launch its first sample-return mission in 2014 with a second mission in 2016 The new program incorporated ldquolessons learned from previous mission successes and failuresrdquo and built on recent scientific discoveries Although NASA led the revamped program the Mars missions also included international participants particularly France and Italy whose space agencies had agreed to conduct collaborative scientific orbital and surface investigations as well as to contribute sample collection-and-return systems telecommunications assets and launch services1024

30 October NASA awarded Lockheed Martin Space Systems a US$115 billion six-year contract to produce 35 additional super-lightweight external tanks for the Space Shuttle Program the sixth production of tanks and the first composed entirely of super-lightweight tanks The contract covered the manufacture assembly test and delivery of the tanks as well as the operations and maintenance of NASArsquos Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and activities at MSFC and KSC Jerry W Smelser Manager of MSFCrsquos External Tank Project Office described the contract as designed to ldquoassure the delivery of a quality product and to reward the contractor and employees on the basis of performancerdquo1025

President William J Clinton signed into law H R 1654 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2000 authorizing funding for ldquoa robust space and aeronautics program for the Nationrdquo Clinton commended bipartisan efforts to pass an authorization bill funding NASArsquos priorities such as building the ISS improving Space Shuttle safety and using the Space Launch Initiative to reduce the cost of access to space However Clinton criticized the bill for limiting ldquoNASArsquos flexibility to pursue a promising commercial habitation modulerdquo for the ISS saying that the bill included several ldquoobjectionable provisionsrdquo and only one of the 14 legislative provisions that his administration had proposed1026

31 October The first crew to inhabit the ISS launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on its four-month mission A veteran of three US Space Shuttle missions William M Shepherd commanded Expedition I Crew members with whom Shepherd had trained since 1996 were two cosmonauts Pilot Yuri P Gidzenko of the Russian air force and Flight Engineer Sergei K Krikalev a veteran of four Russian and US space missions With 484 days logged in orbit Krikalev was one of the worldrsquos most experienced space travelers1027

1024 NASA ldquoNASA Outlines Mars Exploration Program for Next Two Decadesrdquo news release 00-171 26 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-171txt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1025 NASA ldquoNASA Awards $115 Billion Contract for Shuttle External Tanksrdquo news release C00-p 30 October 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-ptxt (accessed 1 April 2008) 1026 US Newswire ldquoClinton Statement on Signing of the lsquoNational Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2000rsquordquo 30 October 2000

296


NOVEMBER 2000

2 November The first International Space Station (ISS) crew Expedition I arrived at the new station where they planned to live for the next four and one-half months The crewrsquos Soyuz craft automatically docked at a port on the Zvezda habitation module The Russian-built NASA-financed Zarya propulsion-and-storage module attached to the other end of Zvezda was loaded with supplies and equipment delivered by recent Shuttle missions Unless an emergency or breakdown occurred the multi-hatch Unity module would remain off limits A Shuttle crew had installed a structural truss on the Unity module in October and during a mission scheduled for early December another crew would attach a set of solar arrays to the truss Without the solar arrays the station did not have enough power to heat the module properly or to control the dew point to prevent dangerous condensation The ISS crew and their US and Russian managers temporarily named the station Alpha at least for the duration of the Expedition I mission1028

3 November NASA announced that the Chandra X-ray Observatory had detected iron-emission lines in the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) marking the first time such lines had been ldquounambiguously detectedrdquo in association with GRBs and the first time scientists had been able to measure their properties precisely in x-ray wavelengths Luigi Piro lead author of a paper published in the 3 November issue of the journal Science explained that the discovery provided an important clue to understanding the origins of the bursts The new data enabled scientists to rule out the theory that two neutron stars or black holes collide to cause a GRB one of various theories about how the bursts originate Instead Piro suggested that the bursts were more likely the result of ldquosomething similar to a supernova explosion but much more powerfulrdquo1029

6 November Jason Allen Diekman of Mission Viejo California pled guilty to federal charges of computer crimes after negotiating a deal with prosecutors Prosecutors had charged Diekman in September with illegal hacking and with using stolen credit card numbers to purchase US$6000 worth of computer equipment and other items He had confessed to investigators that he had hacked into ldquohundreds maybe thousandsrdquo of computers over two years including systems at the University of California at Los Angeles Harvard University Cornell University the University of California at San Diego and California State University at Fullerton Diekmanrsquos most serious confessed invasions had occurred at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where he had gained root-level access to two computer systems and at Stanford University where he had

1027 John Daniszewski ldquoCrew of 3 Blasts Off To Make a Home of Space Stationrdquo Los Angeles Times 31 October 2000 1028 William Harwood ldquoCrew of lsquoAlpharsquo Males Moves into Space Station Docking Complete NASA Chief Allows Namersquos Use for Nowrdquo Washington Post 3 November 2000 1029 NASA ldquoNASArsquos Chandra Captures Telling Gamma-Ray Afterglowrdquo news release 00-173 3 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-173txt (accessed 7 April 2008) L Piro et al ldquoObservation of X-ray Lines from a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB991216) Evidence of Moving Ejecta from the Progenitorrdquo Science 290 no 5493 (3 November 2000) 955ndash958

297


gained control over 24 systems two of them owned by NASA and containing flight-control software for NASArsquos satellites The US District Judge set sentencing for 5 February 20011030

8 November An eruption of solar-flare activity prompted NASA to order the ISS crew to take shelter in the Russian-built Zvezda module for 12 hours The federal Space Environment Center in Boulder Colorado rated the solar-flare event an S-4 making it the fourth-largest solar-radiation storm since 1976 NASA calculated that the ISS would travel through danger zones during the seven or eight orbits of a 12-hour period on 9 November Officials advised the crew to activate radiation-detection monitors in Zvezdarsquos living quarters and to remain in the aft section of the module during working hours except for two periods of 15 to 20 minutes during each 90-minute orbit when they could safely move around the cabin Michael J Golightly Chief of Space Science at Johnson Space Center (JSC) explained that the Zvezda module had a shield heavy enough to reduce the crewrsquos radiation exposure by 60 percent1031

9 November The Chandra X-ray Observatory team won a Current Achievement award from the Smithsonian Institutionrsquos National Air and Space Museum for ldquoits efforts in building placing in orbit and operating the most sophisticated astronomical observatory ever builtrdquo NASA had first proposed the Chandra in 1976 and had placed the telescope in orbit during a Space Shuttle mission in July 1999 Since its deployment Chandra had refined scientistsrsquo knowledge of the nature of galactic nuclei confirmed the existence of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies like Andromeda and the Milky Way captured images of an active starburst galaxy analyzed the compositions of supernovas and examined x-ray stars in the Orion Nebula The museum also honored engineer and aviator A Scott Crossfield with a Lifetime Achievement award Crossfield had begun his career in the 1950s as a research pilot for NASArsquos predecessor agency the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and had become the first pilot to exceed Mach 2 accomplishing this feat while flying the rocket-powered Douglas D-558-2 Crossfield had joined North American Aviation in 1955 and had worked on all aspects of the X-15 program In addition to his work on the X-15 Crossfield had developed the ground-control test methodology that became standard in the Mercury Gemini and Apollo space programs He had served as a division vice president at Eastern Airlines between 1967 and 1975 and after that as a technical advisor to the US House Science Subcommittee for Transportation Aviation and Weather until his retirement in 19931032

NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had captured an image of a lone neutron star traveling close to Earth one of several hundred million neutron stars that scientists believed to exist in the Milky Way Hubble scientists believed that at 200 light-years away this neutron star was the nearest to Earth No companion star affected its appearance allowing

1030 David Rosenzweig ldquoHacker Pleads Guilty to Invading JPL Stanford Computers Crime Mission Viego Man 20 Accepts Federal Plea Bargain He Had Gained Control of NASA Computers at Both Sitesrdquo Los Angeles Times 7 November 2000 1031 Frank D Roylance ldquoSpace Station Astronauts Take Shelter from Solar Radiation Crew Retreats to Module with more Shields During Unusually Severe Flaresrdquo Baltimore Sun (MD) 11 November 2000 1032 Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum ldquoChandra X-ray Observatory Team and Scott Crossfield Are Smithsonianrsquos National Air and Space Museum Trophy 2000 Winnersrdquo news release 13 November 2000 httpwwwnasmsiedueventspressroomreleaseDetailcfmreleaseID=88 (accessed 15 April 2008)

298


astronomers to more easily test and confirm stellar theories against its physical properties such as size brightness and true age Frederick M Walter of State University of New York at Stony Brook remarked that as the closest and brightest of the few known isolated neutron stars this star would be ldquothe easiest to study and is an excellent test bed for nuclear astrophysical theoriesrdquo1033

United Space Alliance finalized its investigation into the loose pin that had delayed the October launch of Space Shuttle Discovery reporting that the pin had come from the Vehicle Assembly Building Technicians had incorrectly installed the pin intended to secure a platform above part of the Shuttlersquos fuel tank During the Shuttlersquos transport to the launchpad on 8 September the 4shyinch (10-centimeter) metal pin had fallen 73 feet (22 meters) landing on a fuel line near one of the tankrsquos connections to the Shuttle After inspectors had found the pin on 10 October NASA officials had delayed Discoveryrsquos launch 24 hours so that technicians could remove the pin preventing damage during liftoff1034

10 November NASArsquos Stardust spacecraft entered safe mode after a stream of high-energy protons emanating from a solar flare hit the craft Stardust on a mission to return samples of a comet had been 130 million miles (210 million kilometers) from the Sun traveling at about 12000 miles (19000 kilometers) per hour when the solar flare erupted on 9 November The solar wind had brought the stream of protons into contact with the craft hours later in the middle of the night confirming that NASA engineers and scientists monitoring the situation had reason to feel concerned1035

13 November The NASA flight team for the Stardust spacecraft commanded it to leave safe mode after having successfully inspected the craftrsquos cameras Once back in normal operating mode the craft controlled its orientation in space perfectly1036

15 November Iridium Satellite LLC announced that the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York had approved its bid to purchase the operating assets property and intellectual property of Iridium LLC Iridium Satellite LLC would continue providing commercial satellite communication services to the US government1037

16 November The Russian government decided that it could no longer afford to maintain the Mir space station and would destroy it in February 2001 during a controlled descent The Russian government had previously decided to abandon Mir but had extended the space stationrsquos time in orbit after the private MirCorp based in the Netherlands had leased time on the station financing its operation

1033 NASA ldquoHubble Sees Lone Neutron Star Streaking Across Galaxyrdquo news release 00-176 9 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-176txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1034 Kelly Young ldquoPin Found on Shuttle from VABrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 11 November 2000 1035 Associated Press ldquoNASArsquos Stardust Spacecraft Survives Encounter with Solar Flarerdquo 21 November 2000 1036 Associated Press ldquoNASArsquos Stardust Spacecraftrdquo 1037 Iridium LLC ldquoStatement for Iridium Satellite LLCrdquo news release 15 November 2000

299


According to the Russian government a primary factor in its decision to end Mirrsquos orbit had been increasing skepticism over MirCorprsquos continued ability to finance Mir1038

17 November When the automatic docking system failed cosmonaut Yuri P Gidzenko used remote control to dock the first Progress cargo spacecraft arriving at the ISS The craft loaded with food boots and supplies had traveled smoothly to the ISS until within 300 feet (914 meters) of the station When the spacecraftrsquos automatic docking system failed to lock onto the space station Gidzenko took control guiding the craft to within 15 feet (46 meters) of the station Glaring sunlight and a fogged camera lens forced him to wait 40 minutes before he was able to complete the maneuver safely1039

20 November EarthWatch Inc a Colorado-based company developing a network of satellites to capture images of various regions of the Earth for commercial applications launched its QuickBird 1 craft from Plesetsk Cosmodrome aboard a Russian Cosmos-3M rocket However ground stations did not pick up its signals as planned US tracking data listed the craftrsquos orbit as ldquodecayedrdquo and a Russian Aerospace Agency spokesperson described the craft as ldquoeffectively lostrdquo EarthWatch had lost its first satellite Early Bird 1 four days after its 24 December 1997 launch because of a power-system problem1040

Arizona State University and JPL a division of California Institute of Technology announced the creation of the Arizona State University Planetary Imaging Facility and Advanced Training Institute (PIF-ATI) for the study of Mars Arizona State University and JPL would jointly fund the new facility which the two institutions intended for scientists and students to use PIF-ATI expanded on a facility originally planned in support of the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) scheduled to fly on the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft PIF-ATI would offer scientists and students outside the project greater access to instruments and data providing access for university students for students of the fifth through twelfth grades and for their teachers1041

21 November Two Earth-monitoring satellites launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket successfully reaching orbit NASA launched its Earth Observing I (EO-I) satellite part of its New Millenium Program to test several advanced technologies for possible use in future missions NASA planned to fly the US$193 million craft within 2 miles (3 kilometers) of the Landsat 7 satellite to collect the same images with the Landsat 7 images serving as the benchmark for the new imager aboard the EO-I The second satellite⎯the multinational SAC-C satellite a joint venture of NASA Argentina Brazil Denmark France

1038 Vladimir Isachenkov for Associated Press ldquoRussia To Dump Mir Space Stationrdquo 16 November 2000 1039 Chicago Tribune ldquoCosmonaut Forced To Dock Cargo Ship by Remote Controlrdquo 19 November 2000 1040 Stephen Clark ldquoCommercial Eye-in-the-Sky Appears Lost in Launch Failurerdquo Spaceflight Now 21 November 2000 1041 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoNew Mars Research Facility To Involve Scientists Kidsrdquo news release 2000-115 20 November 2000 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases2000marsasuhtml (accessed 17 April 2008)

300


and Italy⎯carried 11 instruments for studying the Earthrsquos surface atmosphere and magnetic field including an instrument to observe the migration of the Franca whale1042

NASA selected six teams of scientists to participate in the first new mission of its Origins Program The teams would use the new Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) scheduled for launch in July 2002 to study the formation of galaxies stars and dust discs under the following projects ldquoGalaxy Birth and Evolutionrdquo ldquoBlack Holes and Galaxiesrdquo ldquoUnveiling Hidden Starsrdquo ldquoInside the Milky Wayrdquo ldquoFrom Gas to Starsrdquo and ldquoPlanet Formation When the Dust Settlesrdquo The teams selected from 28 proposals submitted by astronomers located around the world comprised the SIRTF Legacy Science Program1043

NASA selected 41 proposals of the 109 scientists had submitted to conduct research on Earth and in space using NASArsquos microgravity research facilities NASA intended the researchers to use the facilities to ldquoenhance understanding of physical biological and chemical processes associated with fundamental physicsrdquo NASA was funding the research with more than US$15 million in grants over a four-year period under the sponsorship of its Office of Biological and Physical Research Sixteen of the grants continued work already funded by NASA and twenty-four were for new research efforts Thirty-six grants funded ground-based research and the remaining five funded flight-definition projects1044

The US Department of Energy announced its selection of the Idaho Engineering and Environmental Laboratory to produce plutonium-238 the most radioactive form of plutonium NASA planned to use the isotope which generates electricity to ldquokeep things from freezing uprdquo to fuel a spacecraft on a mission to Pluto planned for after 20201045

22 November Gerald A Soffen Director of University Programs at NASArsquos Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) died of a heart ailment Soffen had begun his career at NASA at JPL working on biological instrumentation development moving in the mid-1970s to Langley Research Center (LARC) where he worked on the Viking Mars Project as a project scientist He became LARCrsquos chief environmental scientist before transferring to GSFC in 1983 At Goddard Soffen had helped develop to NASArsquos astrobiology program and to establish NASArsquos Astrobiology Institute In 1978 NASA had appointed him Life Sciences Director at NASA Headquarters and since its establishment in 1990 he had served as Director of the University Programs Office GSFC Director Alphonse V Diaz remarked that science and students were Soffenrsquos two loves and that ldquothe Agency and the nation will continue to benefit enormously from the talented young people he has brought into the scientific communityrdquo1046

1042 Associated Press ldquoTwo Earth-Monitoring Satellitesrdquo 21 November 2000 1043 NASA ldquoThe Skyrsquos the Limit Science Teams Chose for Space Observatoryrdquo news release 00-184 21 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-184txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1044 NASA ldquoNASA Announces Research Grants in Fundamental Physicsrdquo news release 00-183 21 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-183txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1045 Associated Press ldquoA Type of Plutoniumrdquo 22 November 2000 1046 NASA ldquoNASA Astrobiology Architect Dr Gerald Soffen Diesrdquo news release 00-186 24 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-186txt (accessed 7 April 2008) Washington Post ldquoGerald Alan Soffen NASA Officialrdquo 27 November 2000

301


The government of the Peoplersquos Republic of China released a document outlining its policy regarding its future human spaceflight program and satellite-launch industries The document which provided the outside world with information about Chinarsquos top-secret space program described the Chinese space industry as ldquoan integral part of the statersquos comprehensive development strategyrdquo and stated ldquoexploration and utilization of outer space should be for peaceful purposes and benefit the whole of mankindrdquo The paper provided details of Chinarsquos satellite program stating that as of October 2000 China had developed and launched 47 satellites with a success rate of over 90 percent China had four satellite series in operation the Dongfanghong telecommunications series the Fengyun meteorological series the Shijian research and technology series and the Ziyuan Earth-observation series which had recently launched its first spacecraft The paper also outlined Chinarsquos efforts toward international cooperation notably Chinarsquos signing of an agreement with a dozen countries including the United States Russia Japan and several European countries allowing for scientific exchange and joint development of spacecraft components as well as for commercial launch services To date China had launched 27 foreign-made satellites using its Long March series of rockets1047

24 November NASA Director of Media Services Brian D Welch died after suffering a heart attack Welch who had led many of NASArsquos public outreach efforts was responsible for its news operations for NASA Television and for NASArsquos Internet efforts Welch had begun his career as a cooperative-education student of public affairs at LARC in 1979 In 1981 he had become editor of Space News Roundup the newspaper of NASArsquos JSC Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Welch had worked as a public affairs mission commentator Deputy News Chief at Mission Control Center Manager of JSCrsquos Mission Commentary Team and Newsroom Manager during Shuttle flights NASA had appointed Welch as Chief of News and Information in 1994 and he had become Director of Media Services in 1998 Administrator Daniel S Goldin spoke of how Welchrsquos sudden death had stunned NASA saying that Welchrsquos ldquolove and enthusiasm for spaceflight and explorationrdquo was ldquoinfectiousrdquo and describing Welchrsquos passionate approach to his work as the true embodiment of ldquothe spirit of this agencyrdquo1048

28 November NASA announced the selection of a science team for the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) scheduled for launch in 2009 The team consisted of 10 principal investigators leading key science teams and 5 mission specialists NASA intended SIM part of its Origins Program to search for Earth-sized planets around other stars to measure precisely the locations and distances of stars throughout the Milky Way Galaxy and to study other celestial objects helping to answer fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of the galaxy NASA planned to place the SIM spacecraft in an Earth-trailing orbit around the Sun enabling the craftrsquos multiple telescopes to gather the Sunrsquos light and producing information normally only obtained with much larger telescopes NASA considered identification of potential observing targets for the Terrestrial Planet Finder a critical part of SIMrsquos mission NASA planned the Terrestrial Planet Finder to

1047 Stephen Clark ldquoChina Temporarily Lifts Its Veil on Its Secret Space Programrdquo Spaceflight Now 24 November 2000 1048 NASA ldquoBrian Welch NASA Director of Media Services Diesrdquo news release 00-187 27 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-187txt (accessed 7 April 2008)

302


capture images of planetary systems around other stars and to search for chemical signatures suggesting the possibility of life1049

The National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Integrated Program Office (IPO) selected Raytheon Company to provide imaging-sensor instruments for the new NPOESS craft which would replace the US Department of Commercersquos Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) and the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites Under a contract valued at US$1528 million Raytheon would design develop and test the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument and develop the algorithms to produce environmental data records from VIIRS data1050

Lockheed Martin and NASA entered into a consolidated space operations contract (CSOC) allowing NASA to use the services of two commercial satellite ground-tracking stations Under CSOC NASA customers would have access on a per-pass basis to additional stations on Svalbard Island in Norway owned by Kongsberg Spacetec-Lockheed Martin Space Data Services and in Poker Flat Alaska owned by DataLynx Both tracking stations had recently completed CSOC operational-readiness reviews in preparation for inclusion in Lockheed Martinrsquos catalog of services available to NASA programs1051

30 November NASA announced that new technology recently tested at Ames Research Center (ARC) had converted sounds emanating from landing-gear wind noise into color images on computer screens ldquoenabling engineers to pinpoint loud and preventable aircraft flight noise more easily than in the pastrdquo The imposition of nighttime curfews on noisy takeoffs and landings had prompted aircraft manufacturers to develop quieter planes Paul T Soderman leader of the ARC aeroacoustics group explained that the ability to visualize the cause of wind noise coming from landing gear enables engineers to analyze the problem so that they can find ways to reduce significantly noise The engineers had created the sound images using a computer linked to a quarter-scale landing-gear model and an array of 70 microphones inside the wall of a wind tunnel The researchers had then removed various combinations of landing-gear parts in the wind tunnel resulting in significant noise reduction1052

Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida on Mission STS-97 carrying to the ISS Commander Brent W Jett Jr Pilot Michael J Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Joseph R Tanner Marc Garneau and Carlos I Noriega The purpose of STS-97 also known as ISS Assembly Flight 4A was to connect solar arrays to prepare a docking port for the US-made Destiny module to install Floating Potential Probes to install

1049 NASA ldquoScience Team Chosen for Space Interferometry Missionrdquo news release 00-178 28 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-178txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1050 Associated Press ldquoRaytheon Awarded $1528 Million Contract for Meteorological Satellite Imaging Sensorrdquo 28 November 2000 1051 ldquoLockheed Martin Adds Two Commercial Stations to CSOC Capabilityrdquo Aerospace Daily 29 November 2000 1052 NASA ldquoNASA Technology Allows Engineers to See Airframe Noiserdquo news release 00-189 30 November 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-189txt (accessed 7 April 2008)

303


camera cable outside the Unity module and to transfer supplies refuse and equipment between the ISS and the Shuttle1053

DECEMBER 2000

1 December Raymond Toricelli of New Rochelle New York pled guilty to breaking into two NASA computers in 1998 to steal user names and passwords to gain access to other systems The two computers which helped launch robotic spacecraft were at NASArsquos Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena California Toricelli had also set up a chat room to direct people to a pornography site which paid him 18 cents per referral broken into a San Jose University computer system to gain access to other networks and stolen more than 15 credit card numbers online He stated that he had never intended to damage the computers he illegally entered Prosecutors planned to seek a prison term of 8 to 14 months at Toricellirsquos sentencing on 7 March 2001 The maximum penalty for his crime was 27 years in prison and a US$950000 fine1054

Space Shuttle Endeavour docked successfully with the International Space Station (ISS) the first Shuttle docking at an inhabited ISS William M Shepherd Commander of the ISS noted the festive mood at the space station even though the two crews would not meet in person until later in the mission Soon after Endeavour docked Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau used the Shuttlersquos robotic arm to lift the 49-foot-long (15-meter-long) tower containing the solar array out of the cargo bay where it would remain suspended 10 feet (3 meters) above the Shuttle while the crew slept1055

3 December Endeavour astronauts attempted to deploy the new solar array at the ISS but only one of the two panels unfurled as planned Joseph R Tanner and Carlos I Noriega conducted a spacewalk to assist in attaching a 17-ton (15400-kilogram or 154-tonne) power assembly while Marc Garneau maneuvered the Shuttlersquos robotic arm from inside Endeavour The spacewalkers were unable to open the latches on the storage boxes containing the folded solar panels delaying their attempts to unfurl the array They began to unfurl the first panel 1 hour behind schedule but although it reached its full length in 14 minutes the panel did not appear to have the correct tension NASA officials decided to delay expanding the second panel for a full day to give them time to determine the cause of the inadequate tension of the first panel The ISS crew did not witness the deployment of the solar array because the Shuttle crew carried out their work during the ISS crewrsquos sleep period1056

4 December Members of the astronaut crew who had flown aboard NASArsquos historic 100th Space Shuttle flight Mission STS-92 visited NASArsquos Michoud Assembly Facility to present Silver Snoopy

1053 NASA ldquoNASA Mission Archives STS-97 International Space Station Assembly Flight 4Ardquo httpwwwnasagovmission_pagesshuttleshuttlemissions archivessts-97html (accessed 30 October 2008) 1054 Chicago Tribune ldquo20-Year-Old Pleads Guilty to Hacking into NASA Computersrdquo 3 December 2000 1055 Steven Siceloff ldquoEndeavour Docks at Station Astronauts To Attach Arrays Todayrdquo Florida Today (Brevard FL) 3 December 2000 1056 Warren E Leary ldquoSpace Station Gets Its Wings but Only One Is Deployedrdquo New York Times 4 December 2000

304


awards ldquothe highest accolade that the astronauts corps gives to people who build flight hardwarerdquo to the Lockheed Martin employees who had built the Shuttlersquos super-lightweight tank and liquid-oxygen tank NASA had named the Silver Snoopy award after the Peanuts character the dog that imagined he was a fighter pilot1057

Space Shuttle Endeavour Commander Brent W Jett Jr successfully unfurled the second panel of the solar array (colloquially referred to as a solar wing) that the crew had deployed on the ISS on 3 December Jett used computer commands to unfold the panel a few feet at a time a process that took nearly 2 hours No problems occurred until the crew had extended the panel almost fully when it became clear that a panel on each blanket was stuck to a neighboring section Endeavourrsquos crew turned the Shuttle to allow the Sun to warm the blankets and fired thrusters to shake the array snapping the wing into place The panel began generating electricity before it reached its full 115 feet (35 meters) To NASArsquos relief the panel was stretched tight Once the crew had completed the process Commander Jett radioed to Mission Control that they had two tensioned blankets and Mission Control replied ldquoGreat work gentlemen We think yoursquove earned your solar wingsrdquo1058

5 December NASA made data from its Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) available to the public ASTER a general-purpose imaging instrument featuring 14 spectral bands extremely high spatial resolution and stereo-imaging capabilities had launched aboard NASArsquos Terra satellite in December 1999 One of ASTERrsquos primary goals was ldquoto acquire a one-time cloud-free image of the entire land surface of Earthrdquo intended as a baseline image for monitoring environmental change1059

Endeavour astronauts Joseph R Tanner and Carlos I Noriega worked outside the ISS to connect power lines correcting an electrical shortage that had restricted the stationrsquos first crew to two of three habitable modules The two astronauts also inspected the first solar panel that they had unfurled to determine whether the crew could correct its tension Wearing a small TV camera on his helmet Noriega beamed down to Mission Control images of the loose tension cables on the arrayrsquos right wing The cables had slipped off their pulleys during the solar panelrsquos deployment on 3 December Tanner remarked that an astronaut could place one tension cable back on its pulley without too much trouble but that the other cable would require more work Mission Control instructed the spacewalkers to try to fix the cables on their third and final spacewalk the following day1060

7 December NASA and the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to form a partnership to use science and space technology to

1057 New Orleans Time-Picayune ldquoAstronauts Thank Lockheed Workers Company Makes Shuttle Componentsrdquo 17 December 2000 1058 Associated Press ldquoAstronaut Manages To Spread Stationrsquos 2nd Wingrdquo USA Today 5 April 2000 Warren E Leary ldquoAstronauts Finnish Adding Solar Wing to Stationrdquo New York Times 5 December 2000 1059 NASA ldquoTerra Satellitersquos ASTER Data Now Available to the Publicrdquo news release 2000-124 5 December 2000 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases2000terrahtml (accessed 7 April 2008) 1060 Chicago Tribune ldquoSpace Station Gets an Electrical Boost from Solar Wingsrdquo 6 December 2000 Associated Press ldquoLive from Space lsquoCarlos Camrsquordquo Newsday (Long Island NY) 6 December 2000

305


prevent natural disasters The agreement called upon NASA and FEMA to apply remote-sensing research images to emergency-management issues creating accurate and informative maps of flood plains and wildfires as well as other types of maps intended to help state and local communities respond to and mitigate natural disasters The partnership affiliated with Project Impact Building Disaster Resistant Communities would use NASArsquos Earth Science Enterprise as ldquopart of an aggressive new strategy devoted to significantly increasing the application of NASA remote sensing data information science and technologies to societal needsrdquo1061

Astronauts Joseph R Tanner and Carlos I Noriega were able to tighten the slack solar panel on the ISS within minutes using only a hook to place two tension cables back on their pulleys Although the wing functioned well even though it was slack if the astronauts had not adjusted its tension the solar cells might have torn or the support rods might have bent or broken After repairing the wing the two astronauts installed a camera cable and a static-electricity monitor on the outside of the ISS The monitor would help NASA learn how to protect spacewalking astronauts from electrical shocks1062

8 December Michael C Malin and Kenneth S Edgett of Malin Space Science Systems published research in the journal Science based on images from NASArsquos Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft The two researchers had found that the images showed massive sedimentary deposits on Mars suggesting that the planet ldquowas once a water-rich land of lakesrdquo Malin described the images as revealing ldquohundreds and hundreds of identically thick layersrdquo features that were ldquoalmost impossible to have without waterrdquo J William Schopf head of the Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life at the University of California at Los Angeles commented that the images provided the ldquostrongest evidence yet for what appear to be sedimentary units on Marsrdquo supporting the theory that billions of years ago Mars had been wetter warmer and possibly hospitable to life1063

Hatches between the ISS and Space Shuttle Endeavour opened for the first time and the three members of the space station crew who had been living aboard the ISS for five weeks received their first visitors ISS Commander William M Shepherd commended Endeavourrsquos crew for their installation of the giant solar array on the space station The two crews spent their day together transferring supplies such as food water mail and gifts to the space station and removing trash damaged items and unneeded items for return to Earth1064

11 December

1061 NASA ldquoNASA FEMA Partner To Use Science and Space Technology for Disaster Preventionrdquo news release 00-192 7 December 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-192txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1062 Marcia Dunn for Associated Press ldquoAstronauts Breeze Through Wing Repair lsquoAll Finishedrsquordquo 7 December 2000 1063 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoEvidence of Martian Land of Lakes Discoveredrdquo news release 2000-123 4 December 2000 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases2000marslakeshtml (accessed 7 April 2008) Associated Press ldquoSatellite Photos Indicate Mars Was Water Plentifulrdquo Washington Times 5 December 2000 Michael C Malin and Kenneth S Edget ldquoSedimentary Rocks of Early Marsrdquo Science 290 no 5498 (8 December 2000) 1927ndash1937 1064 Reuters ldquoHatch Is Opened Endeavour Space Station Crews Become Onerdquo Chicago Tribune 9 December 2000 Los Angeles Times ldquoEndeavourrsquos Crew Visits Space Stationrdquo 9 December 2000 Warren E Leary ldquoSpace Station Crew Greets First Visitorsrdquo New York Times 9 December 2000

306


Space Shuttle Endeavour landed at KSC in Cape Canaveral Florida after completing the 11-day Mission STS-97 at the ISS where the crew had installed and deployed the stationrsquos new solar array Shortly before touchdown the ISS sailed above KSC a ldquoreminder of the pressurerdquo on NASA to support more flights to the ISS as the stationrsquos assembly accelerated Shuttle Program Manager Ronald D Dittemore remarked that the successful mission of Endeavour to the ISS was ldquoa good way to end this year⎯a very successful five missionsrdquo1065

A team of three high school students from the North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics in Durham won first place in the Siemens-Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition The team won for discovering the first evidence of a neutron star in the nearby supernova remnant IC443 using data from NASArsquos Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Science Foundationrsquos Very Large Array (VLA) Observatory The students had located a point-like source of x-rays embedded in a supernova and had determined that the central object was most likely a pulsar a young and rapidly rotating neutron star Bryan M Gaensler a pulsar expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who had reviewed the teamrsquos paper remarked that the students had produced ldquoa really solid scientific findingrdquo1066

12 December The Netherlands-based MirCorp the company originally established to keep the Mir space station in orbit for commercial purposes announced that following a board meeting during the previous week the company had decided to ldquoretool the company to work with other Russian space equipmentrdquo The company planned to develop a new orbiter capable of docking with the ISS to market existing space technologies such as cargo spacecraft and to explore commercial projects involving access to a future Russian module on the ISS1067

16 December Ganymede the largest moon in Jupiterrsquos solar system joined the planet Mars and Jovian moons Europa and Callisto as the only known bodies showing strong evidence of the presence of liquid water beneath their surfaces During the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union Margaret G Kivelson a planetary scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles announced that NASArsquos Galileo spacecraft had found evidence of a vast sea of liquid beneath the surface of Jupiterrsquos moon Ganymede Using data collected from Galileorsquos magnetometer during May 2000 and earlier Kivelsonrsquos team had measured the moonrsquos magnetic field The magnetometer had registered readings ldquobest explained by a thick layer of water⎯about as salty as Earthrsquos oceans⎯hidden about 120 miles [190 kilometers] beneathrdquo the moonrsquos surface Thomas B McCord a geophysicist at the University of Hawaii who also presented research at the conference had used Galileorsquos Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer to discover that portions of Ganymede appeared ldquoto have types of salt minerals that would have been left behind by exposure of salty water near or onto the surfacerdquo Gene D McDonald an astrobiologist at JPL which manages the Galileo Mission remarked that Ganymede might be a more promising destination than Europa for robotic spacecraft searching for life Ganymede farther from Jupiter

1065 William Harwood ldquoEndeavour Returns from Station Workrdquo Washington Post 12 December 2000 1066 NASA ldquoStudents Using NASA and NSF Data Make Stellar Discovery Win Science Team Competitionrdquo news release 00-195 11 December 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-195txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1067 Andrew Kramer for Associated Press ldquoRussian Company To Build Spacecraft To Carry Customersrdquo 13 December 2000

307


than Europa has better protection than Europa from Jupiterrsquos intense and deadly radiation Therefore biomarker compounds emerging on the surface of Ganymede would survive longer there than on the other Jovian moons as would any spacecraft orbiting or landing on Ganymede1068

19 December NASA suspended all of Cassinirsquos observations of Jupiter that required the spacecraft to point⎯to take magnetic-field measurements⎯in order to capture images after the craft developed a problem with a maneuvering system NASA permitted Cassini to continue making observations that did not requiring pointing On 17 December Cassinirsquos No 2 reaction wheel had begun to require extra force to turn prompting the craft to switch from electrical power to a hydrazine-thrusting system which Cassini needed to conserve for use in its primary Saturn mission Cassini Program Manager Robert T Mitchell remarked that if tests of the maneuvering system were favorable the craft could begin its observations again in a week to 10 days1069

20 December NASArsquos Office of Earth Sciences selected Gencorp Aerojet to build the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) a spaceborne instrument for measuring microwave energy emitted and scattered by the atmosphere NASA intended the ATMS to replace instruments currently used on polar-orbiting weather satellites NASA planned for the ATMS working alongside an infrared sounder instrument to produce daily global atmospheric temperature humidity and pressure profiles essential for accurate weather forecasting and long-term climate research Associate Administrator for NASArsquos Office of Earth Science Enterprise Ghassem R Asrar remarked that the advanced technology would improve the accuracy of weather forecasting from the current three-to-five day forecast span to seven-to-ten day predictions NASA planned to fly the first unit as part of the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project Bridge mission intended to ensure continuity of research-quality data through the bridging of sounding data between NASArsquos Earth Observing System research missions and future NPOESS operational missions Goddard Space Flight Center would provide oversight of the contract worth US$2066 million1070

NASA announced it had begun searching worldwide for proposals from principal investigators and institutions to develop its first mission to Pluto In the announcement of opportunity NASA solicited proposals for a complete mission to the Pluto-Charon system and the Kuiper Belt requiring that submitted proposals include an expendable launch vehicle and spacecraft its bus and systems and the scientific instrumentation package Although NASA placed no restrictions on the missionrsquos launch date its stated goal was to reach Pluto by 2015 at a cost of no more than US$500 million in FY 2000 dollars This was the first time that the Office of Space Science had solicited proposals for a mission to an outer planet on a competitive basis NASA had chosen this

1068 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoSolar Systemrsquos Largest Moon Likely Has a Hidden Oceanrdquo news release 2000-130 16 December 2000 httpwwwjplnasagovreleases2000aguganymederounduphtml (accessed 7 April 2008) Kathy Sawyer ldquoEvidence of Liquid Found on Jupiterrsquos Ganymede Largest Moon May Be a Place To Look for Liferdquo Washington Post 17 December 2000 1069 Los Angeles Times ldquoNASA Halts Spacecraftrsquos Observation of Jupiterrdquo 21 December 2000 Associated Press ldquoNASA Cassini Spacecraft Trouble Free Approaching Jupiterrdquo 28 December 2000 1070 NASA ldquoNASA Selects Firm To Build Next Generation Weather Instrumentrdquo news release C00-q 20 December 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnewscontract2000c00-qtxt (accessed 7 April 2008)

308


approach to elicit ldquocreative ideas from innovative thinkersrdquo capable of developing highly focused missions rapidly and at a relatively low cost NASA made the announcement after it had issued a stop order on the PlutoKuiper Express (PKE) mission on 12 September because of the PKE missionrsquos unacceptably high increases in cost NASA also appointed Colleen Hartman the Deputy Director of the Research Division of the Office of Space Science as the new Outer Planets Program Director to act as the point of contact at NASA Headquarters for budget content and policy direction1071

The Huygens Communications Link Enquiry Board released its findings recommendations and conclusions after conducting interviews and hearings with the European Space Agency (ESA) NASA and industry project staff and experts The Board had reviewed the unexplained anomalies in the communication subsystem of the Huygens Probe discovered during a Probe Relay Link Test in February 2000 The ESA Director General had formed an independent inquiry board to assess the current status of the Huygens communication link to recommend means of safeguarding the mission objectives and guaranteeing full scientific data return and to recommend ways to prevent similar problems in future projects The Board had found that the entire project structure had led to the anomaly outlining the specific problems in its report The Board also made six recommendations and provided 10 recovery options The Boardrsquos key recommendation was that in the future when a mission carries new hardware the mission plan should be sufficiently flexible to allow for changes from ground command1072

21 December NASArsquos JPL announced that the Cassini spacecraft after successfully undergoing a series of tests was resuming the use of its electrically powered reaction wheels to control its orientation Although mission scientists were uncertain of the cause of the spacecraftrsquos switch to a different maneuvering system they suggested that a small piece of material perhaps from the motorrsquos magnets might have lodged in an area where it caused friction Because the scientists were unable actually to detect any such material they speculated further that either centrifugal force had subsequently forced the material out or the motor had ground it up Scientists also suggested that reduced lubrication in the bearings during prolonged operation at reduced speeds might have caused the problem and that perhaps the increased motor speeds used during the tests had restored the lubrication1073

26 December Ground controllers in Russia restored communication with Mir after they had been unable to contact the uninhabited space station for 24 hours Spokesperson for Russian Mission Control Valery Lyndin allayed fears that Mir would crash to Earth shortly announcing that Russia had received no indication that the space station was losing pressure Mission Control Chief Vladimir A Solovyov explained that the stationrsquos batteries had lost power and no longer had sufficient energy to communicate with ground controllers Once ground controllers had identified the

1071 NASA ldquoNASA Seeks Proposals for Pluto Mission Plans To Restructure Outer Planet Programrdquo news release 00-201 20 December 2000 httpwwwnasagovhomehqnews200000-201txt (accessed 7 April 2008) 1072 Huygens Communications Link Enquiry Board ldquoFindings Recommendations and Conclusionsrdquo 20 December 2000 httpklabsorgrichcontentReportsFailure_ReportsESA_Cassinihuygens_enquiry_boardPDF (accessed 21 April 2008) 1073 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoResuming Use of Reaction Wheelsrdquo news release 21 December 2000 httpsaturnjplnasagovnewspress-release-detailscfmnewsID=6 (accessed 21 April 2008)

309


problem they had switched off specific systems to direct more energy to ground communications Although Mirrsquos solar panels were recharging the batteries the cause of the power shortage remained unclear1074

27 December Russian Space Agency Director General Yuri N Koptev reiterated Russiarsquos commitment to the international community stating that Russia definitely would bring Mir safely down in February 2001 Koptev ldquoangrily dismissed Communist demands to keep the nearly 15-year-old station in orbitrdquo referring to the 20-hour loss of contact earlier in the week as a ldquofinal warning that time was uprdquo and an indicator of the level of the stationrsquos wear and tear Communist lawmakers including cosmonaut Svetlana Y Savitskaya who called the move a concession to NASA had criticized the governmentrsquos decision to destroy the space station However Koptev had countered the criticism saying that if Mir spun out of control the Russian president and government would have to explain to the world where the station would fall and how much damage it would cause1075

28 December Cassini Program Manager Robert T Mitchell at NASArsquos JPL announced the resumption of the spacecraftrsquos observations Cassini had operated without any problems since scientists had reactivated its reaction-wheel system on 21 December1076

1074 Washington Times ldquoContact with Mir Restored After Loss of Battery Power Mission Control Allays Fears of Crashrdquo 27 December 2000 1075 Vladimir Iachenkov for Associated Press ldquoSpace Officials Say Mir Back Under Control Will Be Dumped in Februaryrdquo 27 December 2000 1076 Associated Press ldquoNASA Cassini Spacecraft Trouble Free Approaching Jupiterrdquo 28 December 2000 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ldquoCassini Passes Through Asteroid Beltrdquo news release 28 December 2000 httpsaturnjplnasagovnewspress-release-detailscfmnewsID=4 (accessed 21 April 2008)

310


APPENDIX A


2MASS Two-Micron All Sky Survey

ACE Advanced Composition Explorer ACRIM Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor ACRP Advanced Concepts Research Projects ADEOS Advanced Earth Observing Satellite AIRSAR Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar AMM Auroral Multiscale MIDEX Mission AMS Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer ARC Ames Research Center ARGOS Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite ASCA Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics ASCE Advanced Solar Coronal Explorer ASTER Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer ATIDS Airport Traffic Identification System ATMS Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder AXAF Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility

BA Beal Aerospace Technologies Inc Baracuda Boldly Advanced and Refined Aircraft Concept Under Development

(for BESS) BATSE Burst and Transient Source Experiment BeppoSAX Italian-Dutch satellite named in honor of physicist Giuseppe Occhialini

with acronym SAX for ldquoSatellite per Astronomia Xrdquo Italian for ldquoX-ray Astronomy Satelliterdquo

BESS Balloon Borne Experiment with a Superconducting Solenoidal Magnet BOOMERANG Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and

Geophysics BRSP Brown and Root Services and Pioneer Contract Services

CAMEX-3 Third Convection and Moisture Experiment CASST Commercial Aviation Safety Strategy Team CBERS China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite CERES Clouds and the Earthrsquos Radiant Energy System CIA Central Intelligence Agency CME coronal mass ejection COBE Cosmic Background Explorer CRV crew return vehicle CSA Canadian Space Agency CSOC consolidated space operations contract

311



DARTS Dynamics Algorithms for Real-Time Simulation DFRC Dryden Flight Research Center DOD US Department of Defense DF-31 Dong Feng-31 DMSP Defense Meteorological Satellite Program DROMS Dynamic Runway Occupancy Measurement Systems DTAM Digital Tectonic Activity Map

EDT Eastern Daylight Time EO Earth Observing EOS Earth Observing Satellite ESA European Space Agency ESO European Southern Observatory ESR emergency Sun reacquisition mode EST Eastern Standard Time ETR Experimental Test Range Eutelsat European Telecommunications Satellite Organization EXPRESS EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to the Space Station

FAA Federal Aviation Administration FAME Full-Sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer FAST Fast Auroral Snapshot FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation FFC FutureFlight Central FGB Functional Cargo Block (known by its Russian abbreviation) FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency FUSE Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explore FVI Fisk Ventures Inc

GAO US General Accounting Office GCN Gamma Ray Burst Coordinates Network GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite GPS Global Positioning Satellite GRB gamma-ray bursts GRC Glenn Research Center GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center

HAL5 Huntsville Alabama L5 Society HEDS Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise HESSI High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager HDF-S Hubble Deep Field South HETE High Energy Transient Explorer Mission HST Hubble Space Telescope

312



ICBM intercontinental ballistic missile ILS International Launch Services ISCCP International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project ISS International Space Station

JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory JSC Johnson Space Center

KITSAT Korea Institute of Technology satellite KSC Kennedy Space Center

LAGEOS Laser Geodynamics Satellite LARC Langley Research Center LASCO Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph LED light-emitting diodes LERC Lewis Research Center LFBB Liquid Fly Back Booster LMCSS Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems LoFLYTE Low Observable Flight Test Experiment LRIP low-rate initial production

maglev magnetic levitation MIDEX Medium-Class Explorer MIRACL Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser MISR Multi-Angle Imaging Spectroradiometer MOD Masters of Downloading MODIS Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer MOLA Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter MOPITT Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere MSFC Marshall Space Flight Center MSL Microgravity Science Laboratory

NACA National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASDA National Space Development Agency of Japan NEAR Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous NGI Next Generation Internet NGSS Next Generation Sky Survey NGST Next Generation Space Telescope NICMOS Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer NIMS Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NPOESS National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environment Satellite System NPP NPOESS Preparatory Project

313



NPR National Partnership for Reinventing Government NRC National Research Council NRO National Reconnaissance Office NSTAR NASA Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Application Readiness

OAST Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology OBPR Office of Biological and Physical Research OLSMA Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications OMB Office of Management and Budget

PDRS probe data relay subsystem PETI-5 Phenylethynyl Terminated Imide Oligomers fifth composition PIF-ATI Planetary Imaging Facility and Advanced Training Institute PKE PlutoKuiper Express POES Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite POLARIS Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in the Arctic Region in Summer PSA Personal Satellite Assistant PSLV Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PST Pacific Standard Time

QuikSCAT Quick Scatterometer

RESTORE Reconfigurable Control for Tailless Fighter Aircraft RLV reusable launch vehicle ROSAT Roumlntgensatellit ROTSE Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment RSIS RS Information Services RTG Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator RXTE Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer

SAC Scientific Applications Satellite SAFARI Southern African Regional Science Initiative SAFER Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue SCP Spacecraft Control Processor SELVS Small Expendable Launch Vehicle Services SHARP Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program SIM Space Interferometry Mission SIR-C Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C SIR-CX-SAR Spaceborne Imaging Radar-CX-band Synthetic Aperture Radar SIRTF Space Infrared Telescope Facility SMEX Small Explorer SOHO Solar and Heliospheric Observatory SRB solid rocket booster STS Space Transportation System

314



SUNSAT Stellenbosch University South Africa satellite SWAS Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite

TDRS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite THEMIS Thermal Emission Imaging System THUNDER Thin-Layer Composite-Unimorph Piezoelectric Driver and Sensor TIROS Advanced Television Infrared Observation Satellite TOMS Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer TOMS-EP Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe TRACE Transition Region and Coronal Explorer TRACE-A Transport and Chemistry near the Equator of the Atlantic TRMM Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission TSS tethered satellite system

USA United Space Alliance UV ultraviolet VIIRS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite VLA Very Large Array VLBI Very Long Baseline Interferometry VLT Very Large Telescope

WIRE Wide-Field Infrared Explorer

XMM X-ray Multi-Mirror scientific satellite XTE X-ray Timing Explorer

Y2K Year 2000

315


APPENDIX B

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson J D W L Sjogren and G Schubert ldquoGalileo Gravity Results and the Internal Structure of Lordquo Science 272 no 5262 (3 May 1996) 709minus712

Anselmo Joseph C ldquoNASA Funds Research for Shuttle Successorrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 152 no 7 (14 February 2000) 11minus12

Basri Gibor Subjanjoy Mohanty France Allard Peter H Hauschildt Xavier Delfosse Eduardo L Martin Theirry Forveille and Bertrand Goldman ldquoAn Effective Temperature Scale for Late-M and L Dwarfs From Resonance Absorption Lines of Cs I and Rb Irdquo Astrophysical Journal Letters 538 no 1 (20 July 2000) 363minus385

Berenji H R Ping-Wei Chang and S R Swanson ldquoRefining the Shuttle Training Aircraft Controllerrdquo Fuzzy Systems 1997 Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE International Conference 2 (1minus5 July 1997) 677minus682

Carlson R W M S Anderson R E Johnson W D Smythe A R Hendrix C A Barth L A Soderblom G B Hansen T B McCord J B Dalton R N Clark J H Shirley A C Ocampo and D L Matson ldquoHydrogen Peroxide on the Surface of Europardquo Science 283 no 5410 (26 March 1999) 2062ndash2064

Carlson R W R E Johnson and M S Anderson ldquoSulfuric Acid on Europa and the Radiolytic Sulfur Cyclerdquo Science 286 no 5437 (1 October 1999) 97ndash99

Chakrabarty Deepto and Edward H Morgan ldquoThe Two-Hour Orbit of a Binary Millisecond X-ray Pulsarrdquo Nature 394 no 6691 (23 July 1998) 346ndash348

Corliss William R ldquoDevelopment of the First Sounding Rocketsrdquo Chapter 4 in NASA Sounding Rockets 1958ndash1968 A Historical Summary Washington DC NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office 1971

Covault Craig ldquoShuttleSpartan Verdict Sparks Station Concernsrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 148 no 16 (20 April 1998) 26

Covault Craig and Pierre Sparaco ldquoFrench Astronaut Joins RussianUS Mir Crewrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 145 no 9 (26 August 1996) 69minus70

Dornheim Michael A ldquoPathfinder Aircraft Hits 71500 Ftrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 147 no 3 (21 July 1997) 40minus42

Dornheim Michael A ldquoPathfinder Surpasses Propeller Altitude Recordrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 146 no 25 (16 June 1997) 53

317


Dornheim Michael A ldquoUnexpected Jovian Radiation Hits Galileordquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 151 no 8 (23 August 1999) 42

Farquhar James Mark H Thiemens and Teresa Jackson ldquoAtmosphere-Surface Interactions on Mars Δ17Ο Measurements of Carbonate from ALH84001rdquo Science 280 no 5369 (5 June 1998) 1580

Furness Tim ldquoNew Evidence Reveals Fire on Doomed Challengerrsquos Boosterrdquo Flight International 5minus11 February 1997

Glanz James ldquoChain of Errors Hurled Probe into Spinrdquo Science 281 no 5376 (24 July 1998) 499

Gloeckler G J Giess N A Schwadron L A Fisk T H Zurbuchen F M Ipavich R von Steiger H Balsiger and B Wilken ldquoInterception of Comet Hyakutakersquos Ion Tail at a Distance of 500 Million Kilometersrdquo Nature 404 no 6778 (6 April 2000) 576minus579

Gurnett D A W S Kurth A Roux S J Bolton and C F Kennel ldquoEvidence for Magnetosphere at Ganymede from Plasmawave Observations by the Galileo Spacecraftrdquo Nature 384 no 6609 (12 December 1996) 535minus538

Hartmann William Michael Malin Alfred McEwen Michael Carr Larry Soderblom Peter Thomas Ed Danielson Phillip James and Joseph Veverka ldquoEvidence for Recent Volcanism on Mars from Crater Countsrdquo Nature 397 no 6720 (18 February 1999) 586

Hassler Donald Ingolf E Dammasch Philippe Lemaire Pal Brekke Werner Curdt Helen E Mason Jean-Claude Vial and Klaus Wilhelm ldquoSolar Wind Outflow and the Chromospheric Magnetic Networkrdquo Science 283 no 5403 (5 February 1999) 810

Head James W III Harald Hiesinger Mikhail A Ivanov Mikhail A Kreslavsky Stephen Pratt and Bradley J Thomson ldquoPossible Ancient Oceans on Mars Evidence from Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter Datardquo Science 286 no 5447 (10 December 1999) 2134ndash2137

Herman J R P Bhartia J Ziemke Z Ahmad and D Larko ldquoUV-B Increases (1979minus1992) from Decreases in Total Ozonerdquo Geophysical Research Letters 23 no 16 (1996) 2117minus2120

Huygens Communications Link Enquiry Board ldquoFindings Recommendations and Conclusionsrdquo Report 20 December 2000 1ndash13 httpklabsorgrichcontentReports Failure_ReportsESA_Cassinihuygens_enquiry_boardPDF (accessed 21 April 2008)

Jet Magazine ldquoNavy Captain Winston Scott Becomes Second Black To Walk in Spacerdquo 5 February 1996 24

318


Jones Geraint H Andre Balogh and Timothy S Horbury ldquoIdentification of Comet Hyakutakersquos Extremely Long Ion Tail from Magnetic Field Signaturesrdquo Nature 404 no 6778 (6 April 2000) 574minus577

Khurana K K D J Stevenson G Schubert C T Russell R J Walker and C Polanskey ldquoInduced Magnetic Fields as Evidence for Subsurface Oceans in Europa and Callistordquo Nature 395 no 6704 (22 October 1998) 777ndash780

Kirschvink Joseph L Altair T Maine and Hojatollah Vali ldquoPaleomagnetic Evidence of a Low-Temperature Origin of Carbonate in the Martian Meteorite ALH84001rdquo Science 275 no 5306 (14 March 1997) 1629minus1634

Kivelson Margaret Christopher T Russell Martin Volwerk Raymond J Walker and Christophe Zimmer ldquoGalileo Magnetometer Measurements A Stronger Case for a Subsurface Ocean at Europardquo Science 289 no 5483 (25 August 2000) 1340ndash1343

Kosovichev A G and V V Zharkova ldquoX-ray Flare Sparks Quake Inside Sunrdquo Nature 383 no 6683 (28 May 1998) 317

Kouveliotou C S Dieters T Strohmayer J van Paradijs G J Fishman C A Meegan K Hurley J Kommers I Smith D Frail and T Murakami ldquoAn X-ray Pulsar with a Superstrong Magnetic Field in the Soft Gamma-Ray Repeater SGR1806-20rdquo Nature 393 no 6682 (21 May 1998) 235ndash237

Lawrence D J W C Feldman B L Barraclough A B Binder R C Elphic S Maurice and D R Thomsen ldquoGlobal Elemental Maps and the Moon The Lunar Prospector Gamma-Ray Spectrometerrdquo Science 281 no 5382 (4 September 1998) 1484ndash1489

Luu Jane Brian G Marsden David Jewitt Chadwick A Trujillo Carl W Hergenrother Jun Chen and Warren B Offutt ldquoA New Dynamic Class of Object in the Outer Solar Systemrdquo Nature 387 no 6633 (5 June 1997) 573minus575

Malin Michael C and Kenneth S Edget ldquoSedimentary Rocks of Early Marsrdquo Science 290 no 5498 (8 December 2000) 1927ndash1937

Maloney Lawrence D ldquoGalileo Probersquos Guardian Angelrdquo Design News 52 no 5 (3 March 1997) 74minus83

McCord T B G B Hansen F P Fanale R W Carlson D L Matson TV Johnson W D Smythe J K Crowley P D Martin A Ocampo C A Hibbitts J C Granahan and the NIMS Team ldquoSalts on Europarsquos Surface Detected by Galileo Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometerrdquo Science 280 no 5367 (22 May 1998) 1242

McEwen Alfred S Michael C Malin Michael H Carr and William K Hartmann ldquoVoluminous Volcanism on Early Mars Revealed in Valles Marinerisrdquo Nature 397 no 6720 (18 February 1999) 584

319


McKay David S Everett K Gibson Jr Kathie L Thomas-Keptra Hojatollah Vali Christopher S Romanek Simon J Clemett Xavier D F Chillier Claude R Maechling and Richard N Zare ldquoSearch for Past Life on Mars Possible Relic Biogenic Activity in Martian Meteorite ALH84001rdquo Science 273 no 5277 (16 August 1996) 924minus930

Meltzer Michael Mission to Jupiter A History of the Galileo Project Washington DC NASA 2007

Mojzsis S J G Arrhenius K D McKeegan T M Harrison A P Nutman and C R L Frien ldquoEvidence for Life on Earth Before 3800 Million Years Agordquo Nature 384 no 6604 (7 November 1996) 55minus60



NASA ldquoUS and Russian Human Space Flights 1961ndashSeptember 30 2000rdquo in Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 2000 Activities Washington DC 2001

NASA Advisory Council ldquoReport on the Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force on the International Space Stationrdquo Washington DC 21 April 1998 httphistorynasagov 32999pdf (accessed 24 September 2007)

NASA Office of Inspector General ldquoAssessment of the Triana Missionrdquo Final report G-99-013 Washington DC 10 September 1999 httpoignasagovoldinspections_assess mentsg-99-013pdf (accessed 3 March 2008)

NASA Office of Inspector General ldquoNASA Oversight of Russian Biotechnology Research 1994ndash1997rdquo NASA report G-00-07 Washington DC 13 October 2000 httpoig nasagovoldinspections_assessmentsg-00-007pdf (accessed 8 April 2008)

Owen Tobias Paul Mahaffy H B Niemann Sushil Atreya Thomas Donahue Akiva Bar-Nun and Imke de Pater ldquoA Low-Temperature Origin for the Planetesimals that Formed Jupiterrdquo Nature 402 no 6759 (18 November 1999) 269ndash270

Phillips Edward H ldquoOvermyer Dies in Crashrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 144 no 14 (1 April 1996) 29

Piro L G Garmire M Garcia G Stratta E Costa M Feroci P Meszaros M Vietri H Bradt D Frail F Frontera J Halpern J Heise K Hurley N Kawai R M Kippen F Marshall T Murakami V V Sokolov T Takeshima and A Yoshida ldquoObservation of X-ray Lines from a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB991216) Evidence of Moving Ejecta from the Progenitorrdquo Science 290 no 5493 (3 November 2000) 955ndash958

320


Sawyer Kathy The Rock from Mars A Detective Story on Two Planets New York Random House 2006

Smith Bruce ldquoFast Launched Successfullyrdquo Aviation Week and Space Technology 145 no 9 (26 August 1996) 71

Smith David E Maria T Zuber Sean C Solomon Roger J Phillips James W Head James B Garvin W Bruce Banerdt Duane O Muhleman Gordon H Pettengill Gregory A Neumann Frank G Lemoine James A Abshire Oded Aharonson C David Brown Steven A Hauck Anton B Ivanov Patrick J McGovern H Jay Zwally and Thomas C Duxbury ldquoThe Global Topography of Mars and Implications for Surface Evolutionrdquo Science 284 no 5419 (28 May 1999) 1495ndash1503

Sonett C P E P Kvale A Zakharian Marjarie A Chan and T M Demko ldquoLate Proterozoic and Paleozoic Tides Retreat of the Moon and Rotation of the Earthrdquo Science 273 no 5271 (5 July 1996) 100minus104

Stern Robert J and Mohamed Gamal ldquoThe Origin of the Great Bend of the Nile from SIR-CXshySAR Imageryrdquo Science 274 no 5293 (6 December 1996) 1696minus1698

Thomas Peter C Richard P Binzel Michael J Gaffey and Alex D Storrs ldquoImpact Excavation on Asteroid 4 Vesta Hubble Space Telescope Resultsrdquo Science 277 no 5331 (5 September 1997) 1492minus1495

U S Air Force Headquarters The Roswell Report Case Closed Washington DC GPO 1997

US General Accounting Office ldquoExport Controls International Space Station Technology Transfersrdquo Report no NSIAD-00-14 Washington DC 3 November 1999 httpwwwgaogovarchive2000ns00014pdf (accessed 21 March 2008)

US General Accounting Office ldquoInformation Security Many NASA Mission-Critical Systems Face Serious Risksrdquo Report no GAOAIMD-99-47 Washington DC May 1999 httpwwwgaogovarchive1999ai99047pdf (accessed 7 February 2008)

US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Shuttle Human Capital and Safety Upgrade Challenges Require Continued Attentionrdquo Report no GAONSIADGGD-00-186 Washington DC August 2000 httpwwwgaogovarchive2000n200186pdf (accessed 9 May 2008)

US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Station Russian Commitment and Cost Control Problemsrdquo Report no GAONSIAD-99-175 Washington DC August 1999 httpwwwgaogovarchive1999ns99175pdf (accessed 25 February 2008)

US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Station US Life-Cycle Funding Requirements Statement of Allen Li Associate Director Defense Acquisitions Issues National Securit

321


and International Affairs Divisionrdquo Testimony before the House Committee on Science and Technology Document no GAOT-NSIAD-98-212 24 June 1998

US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Surveillance DOD and NASA Need Consolidated Requirements and a Coordinated Planrdquo Report no NSIAD 98-42 Washington DC 1 December 1997

US General Accounting Office ldquoSpace Transportation Status of the X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle Programrdquo Report no NIASD-99-176 Washington DC 11 August 1999 httpwwwgaogovarchive1999ns99176pdf (accessed 4 March 2008)

Wijnands Rudy and Michiel van der Klis ldquoA Millisecond Pulsar in an X-ray Binary Systemrdquo Nature 394 no 6691 (23 July 1998) 344ndash346

Zuber Maria T David E Smith Sean C Solomon James B Abshire Robert S Afzal Oded Aharonson Kathryn Fishbaugh Peter G Ford Herbert V Frey James B Garvin James W Head Anton B Ivanov Catherine L Johnson Duane O Muhleman Gregory A Neumann Gordon H Pettengill Roger J Phillips Xiaoli Sun H Jay Zwally W Bruce Banerdt and Thomas C Duxbury ldquoObservations of the North Polar Region of Mars from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeterrdquo Science 282 no 5396 (11 December 1998) 2053

Zuber Marie T Sean C Solomon Roger J Phillips David E Smith G Leonard Tyler Oded Aharonson Georges Balmino W Bruce Banerdt James W Head Catherine L Johnson Frank G Lemoine Patrick J McGovern Gregory A Neumann David D Rowlands and Shijie Zhong ldquoInternal Structure and Early Thermal Evolution of Mars from Mars Global Surveyor Topography and Gravityrdquo Science 287 no 5459 (10 March 2000) 1788minus1893

The writers used NASA news releases contract announcements policy directives NASArsquos HQ Bulletin Spacewarn Bulletin and NASA Daily News Summary news releases of aeronautics industry companies and universities such as Ball Aerospace amp Technologies Corporation The Boeing Company Cordant Technologies Lockheed Martin Medialink Worldwide SkyCorp SPACEHAB California Institute of Technology and Cornell University news articles of wire services including Africa News Service Agence France-Presse Armed Forces Newswire Service Associated Press Bloomberg News Business Wire Dow Jones Newswire Federal Document Clearing House Gannett News Service Knight-Ridder News Service PR Newswire Reuters Tribune News Services United Press International and US Newswire newspaper articles from Aerospace Daily Aerospace News Albuquerque Journal Antelope Valley Press Arizona Daily Star Atlanta Journal Baltimore Sun Birmingham News Boston Globe Boston Herald Buffalo News Charleston Gazette Chicago Tribune Christian Science Monitor Cleveland Plain Dealer Dayton Daily News Defense Daily Denver Post Des Moines Register Deseret News Federal Computer Week Financial Times Flight International Florida Today Houston Chronicle Huntsville Times Kansas City Star Los Angeles Daily News Los Angeles Times Miami Herald New Orleans Times-Picayune New York Times Newsday Oregonian Orlando Sentinel Palm Beach Post Press Democrat Roanoke Times Rocky Mountain News Russia Today Sacramento Bee Salt Lake Tribune San Diego Union-Tribune San Francisco Chronicle San Jose Mercury News Seattle Post-Intelligencer Seattle Times Space Business

322


News Space Flight Now Space News St Petersburg Times Star-Ledger Sun-Sentinel Sunday Times Times-Dispatch UniSci Science and Research News USA Today Virginian-Pilot Virginian-Pilot and the Ledger-Star Wall Street Journal Washington Post and Washington Times and television news reports from CNNcom and BBC News

323

TITLE PAGE

PREFACE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1996

JANUARY 1996

FEBRUARY 1996

MARCH 1996

APRIL 1996

MAY 1996

JUNE 1996

JULY 1996

AUGUST 1996

SEPTEMBER 1996

OCTOBER 1996

NOVEMBER 1996

DECEMBER 1996

1997

JANUARY 1997

FEBRUARY 1997

MARCH 1997

APRIL 1997

MAY 1997

JUNE 1997

JULY 1997

AUGUST 1997

SEPTEMBER 1997

OCTOBER 1997

NOVEMBER 1997

DECEMBER 1997

1998

JANUARY 1998

FEBRUARY 1998

MARCH 1998

APRIL 1998

MAY 1998

JUNE 1998

JULY 1998

AUGUST 1998

SEPTEMBER 1998

OCTOBER 1998

NOVEMBER 1998

DECEMBER 1998

1999

JANUARY 1999

FEBRUARY 1999

MARCH 1999

APRIL 1999

MAY 1999

JUNE 1999

JULY 1999

AUGUST 1999

SEPTEMBER 1999

OCTOBER 1999

NOVEMBER 1999

DECEMBER 1999

2000

JANUARY 2000

FEBRUARY 2000

MARCH 2000

APRIL 2000

MAY 2000

JUNE 2000

JULY 2000

AUGUST 2000

SEPTEMBER 2000

OCTOBER 2000

NOVEMBER 2000

DECEMBER 2000

APPENDIX A - TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

APPENDIX B - BIBLIOGRAPHY

astronautics and aeronautics: a chronology, 1996-2000

Documents